Hiding from politics of the present. Bronzeville
still resonates; the LP crackles and spins.
Bronzeville comes alive, still cuts deep.
I wish I had the courage to try to be in conversation
with this woman who meant so much to me.
Now, I can only respond to her poems
the ones that won’t leave me
that call me over and over again
across decades of my life and say,
come back, there’s more water
in the well. There’s something deeper,
something yet to be known.
Come back to the well and drink.
Ellen June Wright
Ellen June Wright’s first collection, Angela, is forthcoming from Lily Poetry Review Books. Her chapbook, Laure, was a top 10 finalist in the Adrift 2025 chapbook contest. Her work has been published in POETRY Magazine, The American Poetry Review, Caribbean Writer, Obsidian, and is forthcoming in Callaloo. She’s a Cave Canem and Hurston/Wright alumna and has received several Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. Wright also hosts a weekly workshop for Black poets.
