Downtown Norfolk as Muse

Downtown Norfolk as Muse was inspired by a recent trip with my daughter into Norfolk Virginia.

Heavy metals.

Machinery struts.

Urban climate

recites riffs.

Developers utter

the hustle, lean

on gentrification,

pushing the

people from

cultivated cultures.

We hang around

street corners:

West Olney,

Colonial, Raleigh.

Two limitless

sparrows, paying

homage to a familiar

womb. We croon

for resistance,

representation,

exhaling riffs,

like Miles Davis

mixing down

something sweet

for the people.

No god in new

developments,

just the energy

of fat cats, trying

to flip product

and swell pockets.

We run them laps

until sunlight

dips her head.

Until muscles

tighten from

the application

of this silly jazz.

Yes. This. This.

THIS is how

revolutions

hold their heads

in urban wilderness.

We question sanity,

tilting our ideas

toward dying day.

The gamble is real.

Our expressions

stand against late

afternoon, like

raised fists.

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Synnika Alek-Chizoba Lofton is an award-winning poet, educator, and recording artist. Lofton is the author of more than thirty-five collections of poetry and more than one-hundred and seventy spoken word albums. His poems have appeared in Clock House Journal, Revenge, UpStreet, Experience Reality Magazine, Quay, Dissident Voice, The Skinny Poetry Journal, Mid-Atlantic Review, and Blue-Collar Review. His poem “To Honor Her Bold Walk” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2024). He earned both a B.A. in Creative Writing (2004) and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (2006) from Goddard College. He holds teaching positions at Chesapeake Bay Academy, Norfolk State University, and Elizabeth City State University.  For more information about Synnika A. Lofton, please visit his official website.