Claire Pinkston is a biracial Black youth poet and writer from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work has previously been recognized by the Alliance of Young Artists and Writers and is published or forthcoming in Diode Poetry Journal, Lumiere Review, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and The Hellebore, among others. She is growing with her poetry.

YOUTH PORTFOLIO

Black Jezebel Teaches Herself to Dance

By CLAIRE PINKSTON

I hubris, I church, Jezebel
my only hymn–I have held your myths in my mouth
and spat them back bloody.