Matthew E. Henry
Poetry
MEH is Matthew E. Henry, a multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominated poet. The author of Teaching While Black (Main Street Rag, 2020), he has recent and forthcoming works in The Amethyst Review, Bryant Literary Review, Dappled Things, Ploughshares, Poemeleon, The Radical Teacher, Solstice, Spiritus, Tahoma Literary Review, and The Windhover. MEH is an educator who received his MFA from Seattle Pacific University, yet continued to spend money he didn’t have completing an MA in theology and a PhD in education. His work can be found on MEHpoeting.com>.
mannish water
when one of our new white neighbors asked
what he was eating and my mother—smiling
in Black, Gold, and Green—replied curried goat,
I saw visions of petting zoos and satanism
stroke the side of his face, the hand which held
his fork, before he turned and discreetly reached
for a napkin, searched for what looked anonymously
safe on the table. ackee and saltfish. stew peas.
callalloo. breadfruit. I saw the banquet spread,
the love-offering my family raised to be welcomed
into a New England suburbia whose gardens
are for show—not salads or tea. I heard
their names with paler ears. bully beef
and cabbage. tripe. chicken-foot soup. oxtail.