Here are Askia's Poems:
Salem Light
She tilts her wrist; An old southern belle Holding a Salem Light Between her index And her middle finger. The smoke streaming up From the little ember At the end of it Hangs around her head Too heavy to ascend.
She sits poised Like the proud obverse of a coin; A cameo amid the smoke; A profile silhouette Against the lighted window; Her chin is high And her eyes are narrowed With crows feet so deep- Hard old trails From Texas to California.
She brings the Salem Light to her lips; The smoke stops And the little ember glows.
The Silence of Pietro Olivetti
Every day, Between chemistry And literature, Pietro passes Ana In the hall.
Some days Pietro stares At his watch, As if he might be late. Other days He files through his books As if he’s lost his homework.
One day, While passing Ana, Pietro looked up And saw her Looking back at him. She smiled,
That night, Pietro wrote in his journal, “Looking into her eyes Was like looking Into two great continents, And I felt there was a sparrow In my chest, Beating it’s wings, Hoping to fly Over those continents.”
The next day, Pietro saw Ana Coming down the Hall; And coming near to her, He thought of dropping One knee And breaking into verse. He thought of telling her, There’s a bird in my chest Will you unlock his cage So he can fly?
As they came close Pietro looked Ana in the eyes, And as she smiled at him, Pietro dropped To on knee, And tied his shoe.
Love and Gravity
The stairs lead up To a carpeted hallway Illuminated by moonlight Shining in through a little window.
The window looks out over the roof Of the first story, Over the neighbors house, And out into the universe.
The moon is visible. They say it’s moving further Away from the earth- Every year: four centimeters.
It makes sense. The sun is cooling. The stars are drifting apart. I even read once that entire galaxies
Are moving away from one another And defusing themselves. It seems the Ouroboros Isn’t swallowing itself at all
But heaving itself Away from the primordial unity It symbolizes; someday It’ll be face to face with its own tail
And the law of gravity will fail To hold the celestial bodies together, Flinging the moon Into cold, dark, silent space.
In the carpeted hallway, I walk away from the window And into the bedroom. It’s pitch black.
I drag my feet along the carpet, Feeling my way across the room To the bedside. There’s a moan in the dark- A stirring on the bed. My lover lifts the comforter for me. I crawl into bed beside her. She rolls over.
Pulling myself to her side of the bed I lay my arm over The middle of her body; She takes my hand
And draws my arm up Under hers; My wrist between her breasts. Then, simultaneously
We pull into one another. I feel her heat, And her ribs. Her breath comes in the dark.
The moon slips away from the earth, Every moment, some measureless distant. We two humans, hold together, warming One another in the cold, dark, silent room.
Askia reading at the Falkirk Cultrual Center in San Rafael
Photo courtesy of Tamara Holland
All poetry copyright 2011 Askia Humphrey | 
