Two breaths in
Now plunge to the ocean floor

Admire the ruin
Frolic in fallout from battles long fought and won

Trouble still waters
Allow toes to dance at the meet of tide and shore

Sit in silence
Ingest the fumes of indecision

Embrace the yearning
A cool wanting for more

In this life
Where empathy rests in small hiding places

Fiend for good
Disrupt the evil of complaisance

Dare to be
Truth lies in pure existence

Tango with obscurity
Envision self at the peak, in the depths

Take a step
Click heels steeped in dogged courage

Push your will
In time, it will all be worth it

Inhale once more
Steady quivering scope in the whirlwind

Now is all
Submerge into the waters of the present.

About the artist...

Tarnynon (Ty-yuh-nuh) Onumonu was born and raised in the Jeffery Manor neighborhood on the southeast side of Chicago, IL where she still resides today. She is extremely proud of and humbled by her southside citizenship and West African lineage. Within the last year, she has established herself as an emerging spoken word artist, published writer and performance artist. Her other published works can be found with Lesbionyx Blog and the Elevated Chicago Initiative.

Want to see more of Tarnynon's work?

Check out her piece, The Cleansing Breath, from Issue IX: Breathe.