Izzy LaLa
Monday July 8 at 7:30 PM
Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th Street
Host: Stuart Canton
Izzy LaLa is a poet and artist who grew up in Sacramento, California where she studied studio art and journalism at California State University of Sacramento. From an early age, Izzy LaLa has used written poetry as a means of self-expression and therapy. Five years ago she stepped on stage and performed her first poem in front of an audience. Since then, she has been featured at various poetry venues in Sacramento including Luna’s Café and Juice Bar, Rhythm N’ Poetry, and Writers On The Air, where she has spoken on topics such as family, personal relationships and mental health. She is a visual artist who uses charcoal as her medium to draw portraits expressing human emotion – one of her most vital elements as a creator. Her spoken word poetry draws from personal and emotive experiences that have helped to shape her as an artist and person. She uses her time to invest in her craft of drawing, but stays true to her first love – writing. You can find more of her poetry, art and articles at izzylala.com.
Plum Pie
My sister and I ate bitter plums in the summer sun one afternoon
We sprinkled salt like raindrops on flower fields
To bring out flavor
They stung our teeth like snake bites
On flesh – made to only caress –
But we ate them still
My sister sunk into the dismal of an abysmal marriage
With vows she read out loud “rain or sunshine”
“Hard times, good times”
And all those times in between
When you are sitting alone, or in a dream
Of some sort
You make believe plum-purple wounds are bruised-sweetness
Like plum pie in the sky
Let’s eat until there is no more
But dreams are like fantasies
When happily ever after becomes another page turned
The heart turns sour
Like those plums in the summer sun
Sting the strength of that thing holding on
When the dark curtain covers the sun
When gravity begins to pull and fingers begin to dangle
Like hands at alters
Like men and women who falter
When we live in sour-heart homes
How can we ever be free?
Even when kisses become dandelion-wishes
Blown away in the wind
And “goodnights” become mouth-watering daydreams
Do not let bitterness rob your reality
Take you from throwing rays of sun
To casting shadows on anyone who comes
Too close
Don’t break oaths
With that white-lace girl
We are that stalking-shadow we cannot escape
My sister, sit with me in the summer sun
Let’s pour sugar on plums
Don’t forget the past, but let forgiveness outlast
Because it’s freedom after all
After all, isn’t that what we all want?
To eat sweet plums, you and me
And sit in the summer sun freely?
