Drumhead/Little Gods

by NATACHI MEZ
in Fall 2020

Drumhead

earthquake of palm & skin

shattering nothing

but our will to stand still

my hips become active fault line

I dance and you talk

with your hands full

of Orishas & bass & tone & slap

diasporic drum resurrecting

every language that died

is undead

unrecognized ancestors

are still ancestors,

the medium in which

life begat life begat life

begat boom duh duh

drumbeat tells me where I come from

and I am everything that made me at once

Little Gods

writers have mercy
it is written

that you are little gods
and everything you pen is born

and we were penned
and we be mad at/ God

have mercy
we pen little worlds mad at little gods

is it our job to
have mercy/ or to

reflect the God/ we’ve been given
mercy laced into saliva

mercy inextricable from what
breaks down, we

swallow or spit pride
depending on which side of the pen

we stand/ between
author and authored

we are author and authored
not quite trilogy, but still holy

still miracle
still, little gods

Natachi Mez (she/her) is a Nigerian American writer, performer, and emcee from the Sacramento area in California. Natachi is a two time finalist at the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational (CUPSI), and has featured at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Oberlin College, as well as at venues in Accra, Copenhagen, and Istanbul.

Natachi facilitates dynamic experiences that deepen audience engagement and celebrate community voice. She has facilitated writing and performance workshops at Tufts University, Rutgers University, Rikers Island, and more.

You can find Natachi's words featured or forthcoming in Interstellar Flight Magazine, Unplug Mag, Gumbo Magazine, Breadcrumbs Magazine, Write About Now, or on instagram @natachi.life.

Wisdom Calls/the points of knives/grandpapa and holy spirit dance like no one’s watching

I Love it When Black People Ask “How You Livin’?”