Strawberry Mansion by Ilari Pass

In the city of brotherly love
lives a beautiful Black woman
you love the way she moves—
so charming and uncomplicated
on the back of her horse
Fletcher Street is the only home
she’s ever known and desperate to save
here comes the hurt again
the chase for stillness, the silence
she must look very beautiful
when she takes off. Her long, brown hair
flutters in the wind. She could be a victory
Belladonna in her red flame cowboy boots
with not a care in the world what strangers think about her while they sit stuck inside a bus
Look at how she gingerly grasps the reins
the kind of calming presence
that you would want
when reading a book
See that tranquil woman
ride her horse
not to a performance
How strange
that minutes later
she’s still in the same spot
Ilari Pass is a poetry consultant for Free State Review, and serve as a Representative Reader for African American culture for North Carolina Writers' Network. Her Greatest Hits appears in The American Journal of Poetry, ONE ART, Paterson Literary Review, and others. When she's not writing, she is reciting Surahs (Chapters) from the Noble Quran.