“All I want to know
for my own protection
is are we capable
of whatever
whenever.”
Essex Hemphill “For My Own Protection”
[vimeo 104617478]The #whateverwhenever oracle is Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind’s offering to the #blacklivesmatter ride, a national movement in solidarity with young black people in Ferguson, Missouri with a vision towards a just society within which black life is cherished. Today’s poem is “We Need a God Who Bleeds Now” from Ntozake Shange’s 1983 collection A Daughter’s Geography.
To activate the oracle, choose a letter of the alphabet (your initials? the initials of a loved one? a letter that is speaking to you..) and read the poem for that letter aloud to yourself. If you happen to choose a letter that has no words in the original poem you get to make your own poem using only words that begin with that letter of the alphabet.
A
a
a
a
are
a
a
am
am
a
are
anything
B
bleeds
bleeds
bleeds
breath
breaks
bleeding
bleeding
bleeds
C
concession
D
desert
dryin
E
embrace
end
F
G
God
god
god
god
god
H
humility
honor
her
her
heaving
hold
her
hold
her
hills
I
in
in
in
is
ignorance
i
i
J
K
L
lord
lunar
like
let
like
life
M
male
marrow
mothers
mothers
mourning
moon
N
need
now
need now
not
need
not
need
now
not
O
of
of
of
our
open
our
open
our
our
of
P
pitiful
place
planet
Q
R
S
some
small
some
swept
spreads
showers
shades
scarlet
seas
swelling
T
to
the
thick
the
tearing
to
this
the
the
tugs
the
to
to
to
the
U
us
us
V
vengeance
vulva
W
we
who
we
who
whose
wounds
with
we
who
warm
wounded
we
who
whose
wounds
X
Y
Z
brokenbeautiful press 
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