Friday Feature: Tianna Bratcher
- Jae Nichelle
- Jul 18
- 2 min read
Tianna Bratcher (they/she) is a Black, queer, genderfluid poet. They are a Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, a fellow of Tin House, Open Mouth, The Watering Hole, and Griot's Well. A 2020 semi-finalist for the Miss Sarah Fellowship and a finalist for the 2022 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship. Their work has been published in POETRY, Muzzle Magazine, Shade Literary Arts, Stellium Lit Magazine, Ink Well, December Magazine, and elsewhere. Tianna is an alum of Randolph College’s MFA in Creative Writing program. They are a big sister and aspiring movie critic who is infatuated with vampire media, the lives of trees, and collage-making.
Left Eye calls me after the breakup
I knew what I’d find in the ash.
Gut the wolf, girl. Drag his name across the coals.
Don’t you think we owe every mother before us?
We were born to bruised women.
Vengeance is an heirloom.
Show him what hell is
how wrath swallows bones
spits them into flames.
Char his name with the temper of your voice.
Girl, speak up. Be vibrant in your rage.
Be guided by the passion of surviving
Listen, they give us the tools to kill ourselves
and take issue when we survive.
Who you think poured the gasoline?
Gave me the matches?
Yeah I started the fire.
I mean the man who hit me still calls me crazy
even after my death.
Maybe I am what he says
###
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. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats.