Naked Selfies | Raye Valentine

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"Raye Valentine is a poet and artist living in Oklahoma City with her fiance, two daughters, and her cat, Mochi. Her preferred pronouns are she/her/hers. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma and has been featured in online journals such as Up the Staircase Quarterly and Mineral Lit Mag. Her writing explores the many intersections between sexuality, race and trauma while celebrating femininity. Naked Selfies, published by Dancing Girl Press, is her chapbook debut and she is so elated to share it with you all."

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Ghazal Made of Ashes

In middle school my friends were bleach-blonde and tan like me. With fresh-baked shades they
lined up beside me like paint swatches against a wall. So proud. It was a slow burn

Hot comb rested atop glowing red rings in auntie’s kitchen & I sat at the edge in awe.
With hair too thin, I watched her press roots and grease edges. Sweet smell of a slow burn.

One Sunday night, I threw my legs up in the back of his truck. Supposed to be at church
but knew my god resides between my thighs. Embers inside a slow burn.

Boys told me I was too quiet. Too bony. Pretty, but they only dated white girls.
Every day in the mirror I shaped my nose between fingertips. Self-hate a slow burn.

I used the same knife to peel brown skin from potatoes before dinner.
Back & forth, back & forth. Suicide’s shadow on my wrist—I can still feel the slow burn.

Carefully, I comb knots from baby’s hair each morning. I kiss precious curls just
Like the momma of a little brown girl. How do I save her from the slow burn?