Lauren Michele Jackson

blue

I always hated blue cuz blue on my skin wasn’t the wave it was an insult told across a schema from yellow to darkness. She not just black she some kinda superblack, as it goes. She not just black she bone black. She not just black she emits nothing. She not just black she sneeze and the world tilts a little. She not just black she breathe in a vortex. She not just black she like that deep deep part of the ocean the one inhabited by noname creatures till somebody stick their nose in it and bring to light what no one for ‘cept maybe god almighty fit to see. She not just black, she blue. And what did she do.

Lauren Michele Jackson currently lives in Chicago and attends the University of Chicago as a doctoral student of English. Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from The Atlantic, Hayden's Ferry Review, and The Point, among other places.