T his evening at Kwon’s Chinese Food in Pomona some brotha had called his order in. He wanted extra shrimp, yet didn’t want it put on his rice until he got there and could observe the operation. So he shows up looking all crazy. “Yeah, it’s me. The Shrimp Nigga. Order 162.” The girl brought… Continue reading This Evening At Kwon’s
Author: Romus Simpson
Romus Simpson is a poet, cultural critic, and folklorist. Romus attended the Creative Writing Program and Black Studies Department at California State University at Long Beach and has many publishing credits including Callaloo, Voices from Leimert Park: A Poetry Anthology, and University Of Southern California Anthology. Romus is the winner of Sara Henderson Hay Literary Prize, Ann Stanford Poetry Prize (2nd Place), Palabra Poetry Prize, IBW-LA, and was a 2012 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Finalist.
A Shit Talking Pimp Asks Me For The Truth
“Truth is…if they killed you, shot your black ass tonight, in the places you love to hang, the shadows you love to lurk in, talking the shit you talk, pimping, set tripping, teeth shiny from grunting vile rap, lips dry from pursing the B in bitches and hollowing the body to call women hoes… Truth… Continue reading A Shit Talking Pimp Asks Me For The Truth
A True Pomona Story
When I was small, maybe 4 or 5 years old, my mother had a friend named Jean. Jean was a robust and tough, a single Black woman who worked a man’s job at McDonnel Douglass. She’d come by after work in her work pants and boots. When she untied her bonfire bronze and oiled hair… Continue reading A True Pomona Story