Cover Photo: Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult
Illustration by Sirin Thada for Catapult

Shivering in the Summertime

some days my own womb shivers at the thought of / my black ass children being thrown / against any wall

Shivering in the Summertime

my black ass children being thrown against any wall on top of any car hood inside an open ground

in every audience in every cafe in every bookstore in every park in this city in this state at every poetry reading in this country

wish my suck of teeth & saliva-hurt was not woven into my gut like natural flora (there) how i am suddenly jealous of one’s imagination or this so-called learned empathy what it might feel like to be able to shut off a cell phone what it might feel like to only panic for myself to only think of my own attack

Anastacia-Reneé is a multi-genre writer, TEDx Speaker, and interdisciplinary artist. She is a 2020 ARC Fellow and 2020 Jack Straw Curator. Reneé was the recipient of James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington Artist (2018), Seattle Civic Poet (2017-2019), and Poet-in-Residence at Hugo House (2015-2017). She has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA,  and The New Orleans Writers Residency, and her work has been published in Foglifter, Cascadia Magazine, Pinwheel, The Fight and the Fiddle, Glow, The A-Line, Ms. Magazine, and a host of others.