The Legacy Magazine - Spring 2023. part 1

LEGACY THE

I don’t think art When I’m working I think about .

Jean-Michael Basquiat

LettEr from EDitor

Greetings Fellow Vikings,

I am so extremely proud to present the fourth edition of The Legacy! I remember when this was just a concept and we are now releasing another edition. Much like our previous releases, this one is full of the talents of our fellow Vikings. With each release, we are firmly re-establishing our presence as versatile creatives and showcasing the talent that our campus possesses. This edition and those that follow are a testament to the beauty that lies in the words and artistry of our students and it is amazing to watch.

This issue includes pieces from a wide swath of majors. As we work to build a lasting imprint as a literary magazine, we want to reflect the strength of all Vikings. If you are remotely interested in writing or art, then we encourage you to showcase your talents on campus and to share them with us. Our goal is to display the work of artists, poets and writers who are developing strong voices and confidence in their ability. We’ve recently been inspired by seeing exactly how other universities have built and shaped their literary imprint so we’re planning to make some revisions but we’re committed to bringing you the same quality product as usual. As always, there are many hardworking artisans behind the scenes who play a part in creating visuals, formatting and formulating the final product of The Legacy and I want to thank them for all of their hard work. We have an amazing team who continually gives of themselves; which is the Viking way.

With

Viking Pride, Brande N. McCleese, Editor

Those Eyes by Devon Riddick

Infinty by Ceanna Kinney

Lint BLocs by MinnieAynaj Twilight & Eclipse by Ceanna Kinney

Water by Ceanna Kinney

The Beginnings by Ceanna Kinney

Some Things Can’t Be Cleaned by Makayla Childs

Within the Wolf by Jada Strome

Grief by Hameed Nelson

A Songbird on a Windowsill by Jada Strome

Fabric by Hameed Nelson

Hohn Seminar by MinnieAynaj

Not Just Today but Forever by Hameed Nelson

Choice by Tracie Jordan

Mauve by Amanda Williams

The Culture by R.C

Rotten by Jada Strome

Yesterday’s Word

By Hameed Nelson

I’m frozen lying next to you the fire in my lungs gone cold I mutter my softest verse but that’s just yesterday’s forgotten words we talk like buildings fall the first time I apologized jumping over broken bridges in my mind you say the fire’s getting low my love’s a million lies ago we fought the tears back together but that’s for yesterday’s forgotten words

Can we laugh? we’re both broken and forgotten in yesterday’s words

I want to see us together were both part of something far beyond yesterday’s words

By 5.sinces

im self destructive and good at self sabotaging. im not good at the things i want to be. im not good at being loved or accepting what im not used to. i may be pretty but im not worthy.

i like to be spontaneous and do whatever i want. i miss the days i were a kid, cause i dont remember growing up i hate the life ive grown to live, i keep on fucking up i feel i am unworthy of this, unworthy to be loved.

i see your side of things, it seems, more often than you see mine. they say once you stop looking, what you want youll surely find i dont know why you love me, and its not your fault its mine. im filled with rage, and healing the little girl inside

i dont think i can fill your cup, way up to the brim i have so many intrusive thoughts that my heart cant seem to swim through the dreadful waters that we refer to as love baby, i love you dearly, but im just not worthy enough.

Serenity Shipp

Brown

By MinnieAynaj

Although she understood Her place in the world

It was hard to understand why Strength was founded in agony Mother left children

Cooking and cleaning

But reminded them they were not resilient enough to withstand her beatings

When it came to people not understanding inevitable You decided to change the path of emotions

That were hidden in the pits of black holes The cries each night

struggling of wanting more but knowing less Was not resilient

Withering on the floor as she absorbs The generational affection

While acknowledging the infection That has consumed her well being Knowing mother is stuck in the middle Knowing and comforting

What can this child

who is seven but eighteen presenting do?

It wasn’t mopping the tears off the floor so She wouldn’t smell like mildew

slipping in her own sorrow

Resilient

Mother wasn’t there

No one to teach this resilience

Just standing in the middle of uncertainty

Walks through picking up lessons

Because sadness was finally welcomed after years of suffering

she finally was in resilience presence grief is human

Emotion is human

The breath of peppermint as she Walks to her therapist appointment

And leaves with her eyes tearing and heart heavy She watched her cartoons

While twisting down her curls Content with her sadness

For she knew yes life was always going to push her down

It was resilient to find beauty in the ground as she admired the way she watched herself get up

I Love You Black Woman

By Devon Riddick

I love you Black Woman,

Your existence created us all

Creating the meaning and the purpose

Instilling in us and nurturing each second

Dependable more than any

Without you, there isn’t me

Your aesthetic completes every fantasy

Your love isn’t a hoax

Your feelings aren’t minuscule

The knowledge she possesses is absolute

Knowing little bounds

A creature made with perfection

A fossil of love and tenderness

You complete me Black Woman

Delivering life in the Men who talk

Creating love in the animals who walk

She gives me the will to see

To view the World in fluidity

Every second of life is dedicated to you… Black Woman

Donovan Mullen

imy

By @5.sinces

right now im looking back, feeling like maybe i made a mistake. not sure if i did the right thing when i put you in your place.... did i say that wrong? maybe i am the perpetrator but thats how you want me to feelnow im doing you a favor.

let me snap back, let me rewind it was a mess back then, a dark, confusing time. and i dont think im healed, let alone over it, though im not the person who needs closure, whats not helping is withholding it

maybe i shouldn't have been so rude but im sure you could see where im coming from then again maybe you can't, i know the life that you were running from.

in love, you claimed to be in love you claimed with me. in love with every person i set my heart on, see. so maybe i wasnt wrong, but to hell with it now because you guys are happy, while im missing you being around.

Longing

By Ceanna Kinney

What is life without you?

What is the ocean without the tides?

What are the stars if not in your eyes?

What is the world if not you?

What is the sun Without your light?

What is love Without your heart?

What is passion Without your kiss?

What is obsession Without your touch?

Like the moon without the sun I am nothing Without you

Those eyes.

By Devon Riddick

Those eyes.

Ruling the world with power in each pupil

The Waves doing their regular 9-5

With every glance,

Another gets hooked…

An another…

Infinite beauty is what I call it

It never runs out…

She becomes angelic by the day

But those eyes…

Appearing in every dream

Every other thought

Every moment involves those eyes

Dictating her Nation

Overpowering the classes

Destroying the poverty

Bringing peace from heaven, To the Motherland

The World keeps spinning

Because of those eyes..

Jamie Parker

Infinity

By Ceanna Kinney

Fall into me

Let my touch

Leave a galaxy behind Shadows of infinity

A time that never ends

Yet exists only now

An unending plane of existence

With only two souls

Glittered with stars

Planets and worlds encapsulating what Only we can hold

Like the limits of the cosmos

My love for you

Knows no end

Lint BLocs

By MinnieAynaj

I never liked the sight of me

For I knew the mirror was filled with what I thought was beautiful The little old me

Was someone who saw beauty in everything But reality took over my nine year old mind

I can look in the mirror

Pretend that I imagine what she sees Someone confident

Who is so bold She keeps my mouth folded

I never realized how much I grew to like how she sees me This is confusing because for me it’s all an illusion She seems to believe in this reality I’m pretty Hopefully when I fall into my pity of curiosity of what I think beauty mean’s

hopefully she is there wiping off my illusion feeding my soul with the words I whispered to The person above me

I think the universe gave me her after they saw They way our souls talked to each other on the way to find our salvation to love

Twilight

By Ceanna Kinney

As the moon dies

The sun cries

Hot tears

Pierce through

A shroud of thick fog

She is burnt out

In its death, The moon has taken All the light she has left

Eclipse

By Ceanna Kinney

Fall into me

Consume my golden sun

Let my shadow

Be where you shine brightest

In deep infinity

The finites of celestial love

Only for you

In a galaxy of emotions

Filled to endless brim

With stars

The only light I hold

Is for you

Eclipse me

Engulf my light

So you My Sweet Moon

May shine

Mariah Thompson

Water

By Ceanna Kinney

In the way that the tides crawl upon the shore

I am drawn to you

The moon is my soul

Pulling

Every wave within me Into you

I will crash

I will sink

I will soak Into you

And like the waves

My love for you

Will swell

And grow

So I can crash Into you again

The Beginning

By Makayla Childs

The thoughts are constantly storming inside my head

A titanium cell made only for me I can’t escape from this prison running away won’t help putting up barriers to stop the overflow I can’t make it out the time always runs out before I run out the door

feeling so trapped in a looping time warp

I feel so drained watching time pass not being able to blink my eyes I stare in the distance praying for an opening how could I escape this madness

I built up these walls from a young age

NOW I WANT TO ESCAPE HAVE I GONE MAD?

HOW DO I MAKE SENSE OF THESE BARRIERS?

I built these walls now i must break them running in full speed only to return to my mother’s womb

Some Things Can’t Be Cleaned

By Makayla Childs

Try understanding what it’s like to be human

A breathing individual with so much life

I mean we are HUMANS but we start off as rocks wanting to become more we work day and night for currency ninety hours only equal so much still a slave to dirt not enough to buy the expensive things not enough for cars or apartments but I can make a rock rocks take 18 years to mature when I was a rock it took me 12 cooking and cleaning

scrubbing and more scrubbing the white floors never came clean the dirt remaining in the cracks

I keep scrubbing with hope BUT hope is lost.

Within the Wolf

By Jada Strome

Slithering and sliding

Little Red made her way down

Depositing in the belly of the beast

She wore his pancreas like a crown

The walls were closing in

They squeezed her body tight

Had her poor grandma been alive

This would have given her a fright

She felt wet and sticky chunks

Half-digested bits of flesh clinging to her skin

She tried to keep her mouth closed

For consuming her own grandmother was a sin.

Acid burned her eyes and mouth

It forced its way up her nose

It ate away at skin so violently

That her own bile eventually rose

She swallowed it down

And she let out a bleating cry

But when no one answered her pleas

She knew then that she would soon die

The sour scent of gastric juices

Traveled through her nostrils and tickled her brain

For a moment she envied her expired grandmother

For at least she could not feel pain

She gasped and she struggled

Her vision was beginning to waver

No hunter ever did come knocking

Or attempt to be her savior.

Grief

By Hameed Nelson

Grief begins in the mind

then sinks lower, heavy Into my eyes

Am I a man if I cry grief’s tears?

Too late, it moved along

A runny nose

A itch in my lungs

Lower, my heart pumps it through my blood

Sharp pain breaks my fists apart, I surrender

My chest clenches tight

Heavy breaths short on their leash still grief sinks itself lower

The guts trusts me

Wrenched and twisted

They refuse to scorn me with betrayal

Though they felt it in every form

each day

They move me along it

defiantly

My knees shout and wince twins of suffering

I bring them close

To my heart

And in warmth it sings rhythm in circles.

A lost sense of time I sat idle under shower head reveling in grief’s sorrow his all swells back to my mind

Then spilling

From my pen

Ink leaks out onto the page

Killing its original form

Swapping grief for tangible memories

Grief strays into clenched thighs they bear the burden

I suppose I should bury it there

Robert Houseknecht

The Culture

By RC

One left one right, worn through the day sometimes at night

Some high some low, even some mids but those are a no

Most are respected and treated as a prize, others look at them like they aren’t worth a dime

All different types of brands, even designer, too but those there cost a few.

I figured by now you would catch on, those that don’t know I’m talking about a pair of shoes.

Nikes, Jordans, designer you name it, most importantly don’t forget Ye is branded.

Brianna Cole

Rotten

By Jada Strome

Her mother said her teeth would rot So handfuls of sweets to eat she could not She would beg and plead and dance all around Until Mother would snap and tell her not to make a sound

The days went on and as the girl grew Convincing her mother was not something she could do She would beg and plead and dance all around Again Mother told her not to make a sound

Over the years she tried to sway others Since she knew there was no way to trick mothers She would beg and plead and dance all around But those around her told her not to make a sound

When the time came and the girl was nearly grown She still could not reach the sweets on her own She begged and pleaded and danced all around But this time her mother was the one who made no sound

The poison with which mother’s coffee had been laced

Had left the strict woman rather blue in the face

The girl did not have to beg or plead or dance all around

She simply stood on her mother once she had fallen to the ground

For a long while she used the body as a stool

Eating candy and sweets until she bloated like a fool

She finally decided to dance all around

This time from joy instead of a plea to make a sound

She gave a big and toothy grin after one last sweet

Her eyes shining brightly as rotten teeth clattered at her feet

Donovan Mullen

T HE L EGACY

Faculty Advisors

Ms. Brande McCleese, Editor

Mr. Clarence Goss, Program Director

Dr. Sharon Raynor, Dean of SHSS

Legacy Creatives:

Jhatiana McMurrin, Art Director

Jamie Parker, Graphic Designer

1704 MEDIA PRODUCTIONS

1704 Weeksville Road

Elizabeth City, NC 27909

252.335.2342 | 1704media@ecsu.edu