Who will clap for you?

The dreams that Black babies are born with.
 
            Only light,
                        mixed,
                                    palatable
bear witness.
 
In front of the cameras
                                    the marvels
                                                            the Zendayas.
 
Not the Violas
told they're adjacent
to the greats
the whites
                                                            the Meryls.
 
I dream in the cells of my mother.
Big.
Bigger.
Than those of my father.
 
Black dreams are bombed.
That’s why I can’t write Black.
 
            I was taught white
                                    could poet
and Black was
                                                                                                            Martin Luther King Jr.
 

 Fall 2026

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Alexis Raymond is a poet and creative non-fiction writer. Her work focuses on honoring the minority experience in predominantly white spaces. Growing up in Maine has encouraged her work to reach through Afrofuturism and African mythology to tell a modern story. She is a Stonecoast MFA graduate and an Ashley Bryan Fellow with Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Her work can be found in Portland Monthly Magazine, The Elevation Review, So to Speak Journal, Querencia Autumn 2025, The Bookends Review, Hellbender Magazine, and more. 

Art:  L. I. Henley 
“Scorpio Girl: After Rebecca Hart Olander's Singing from the Deep End,” 2026
Colored pencil, acrylic, notebook paper, found The Jesus and Mary Chain album art