
L'Oréal Snell
WebsiteYears: 2007, 2008, 2009
Biography
L’Oréal Snell's poems have appeared in Ithaca College's IC View, Coon Bidness /SO4 Literary Magazine, Reverie: Midwest African American Literature, Cave Canem's XI and XII anthologies, and theblackbottom.com. She has been a featured poet at the Shadow/Ava Lounge in Pittsburgh and The Studio Museum in Harlem. L’Oréal received a Master in Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction from Chatham University and a Master in Arts in Drama Therapy from New York University. She lives in Sugar Hill, Harlem.
Poem
Blue Magic
When mama used to smooth blue magic in my hair
There was no more blues.
Greasing my scalp like a frying pan
Incense don't tickle my eyes.
When mama used to smooth Blue Magic
She eased
hot combed catching waves and kinks.
There was no more blues.
Coon Bidness/SO4 Literary Magazine © 2011
I Remember Cool
I remember cool, cool
summer dusk/easing
Hoards of worn books easing into
The library lull holding quiet
Steady to Grandma’s house, Get her a cool
Pop/cool at the grocery penny-candy don’t forget her
Change, Miss Cool Easter blues
Incense, featherbones and mustard greens
Curb ball, nigger-knocking, penny-candy at the liquor store
Cornrows, Blue Magic, pallet on the floor
Grandma—
Lock the door, shut the blinds
Say something to the Man
Upstairs.
Cave Canem Anthology XII © Willow Books 2012