Two Poems

by Shontay Luna

Shontay Luna is a Melanin Infused Goddess who majored in Poetry at Columbia College Chicago before finishing her studies elsewhere. Her poems have appeared in Olney Magazine, The Riverbed Review, Anti-Heroine Chic and Down in the Dirt among others. Her most recent title is “The Goddess Journal – a tool for unlocking the Goddess within every Woman.” When not writing, she’s couponing or gleefully hoarding gel pens and notebooks. She lives in Chicago, IL with her Sons of Anarchy Juan Carlos “Juice” Ortiz photo gallery.

The Man

I saw a man who wasn’t there, but

he was. He was a thief, but what 

he stole couldn’t be filled out on a

police report or placed in the classifieds,

in the hope it would be found.

He worked hard at being the perfect,

entertaining guest in my parent’s house.

So they wouldn’t suspect anything.

Knowing the more they drank, the sleepier

they’d get.

He came into my room when they finally passed

out. And did something the equivalent of ripping

my insides out. Tossing them on the pillow beside 

me, so he could marvel at the empty

space left behind.

At four years old, I 

didn’t know what 

evil was. 

But I learned

what it was

that night.

The Wolf & The Lambs

(for the former USAG Doctor)

The lambs abound on what should be their safe ground,

The place where they can focus and be secure in their being.

United by a dream and bound in youth,

they huddle together.

Tragically connected by the same dark matter.

The wolf sees them in random glances.

Sees their innocence as his mind is gleefully

immersed in scenarios that’d destroy it. 

A ruin that could shatter souls eager to 

master uneven bars and balance beams.

Lambs that tumble for hours on end and

in nighttime dreams of golden paths.

At first glance, the wolf doesn’t look like a wolf,

as his thin frame stood in the courtroom,

draped in neon and an unassuming expression.

But as the numerous deeds were tallied and

lamb after lamb came forward, he questioned 

his mental stability to face them all. But it was

of no matter in the decades before and the

hundreds of faces prior. He, in his arrogance

and cruelty, thought he could silence them all.

That justice would never touch him,

much less restrain him.

But it did. 

And the lambs stand together,

assured in the knowledge that

another will never hurt again.