photo by Coco Hubbeling
With a B.F.A in Writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Ka'Dia Dhatnubia works as a teaching artist for Deep Center’s Block by Block program, a creative writing and community leadership program for high school youth in the Savannah area. On the side, Dhatnubia has published memoirs with Blue Marble Review, poetry with Pandemic Post, and features with Savannah Magazine; she also freelances regularly for Do Savannah, connecting with the local arts and culture scene. When she’s not writing or teaching, she’s stress baking, reading anthologies, or binging whatever TV show or anime she’s currently obsessed with. Follow Ka'Dia on Twitter and Instagram.
Purity, Promises, and Other Impossibilities
by Ka'Dia Dhatnubia
My 13th birthday
Was a rite of passage.
The women of the church,
My mother
Tugged the white ribbon
From my hair
And tied it
Round my throat.
They made me make promises
To God
And sign contracts
Where the fine print
Was in a fine script
That I couldn’t read.
The ribbon is a ring,
Once snow white,
Once polished silver,
Now sullied, rusted
By time and truth.
The ring
Burns the skin,
Chokes the bone
Of my finger.
My curious fingers
Confess sins and
Keep secrets.
My fingers, black rabbits,
Slip down holes
At night,
Searching for the wonderland
They called hell.
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Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Colleen J. McElroy, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats.