Brown Likka
Smoky and sweet; amber-hued. Neat, with a twist and a cube.
I swirl you around my tongue and for a moment, you are contained.
But then, a blaze in my throat, as I swallow you down down down.
Am I ready for you?
Another sip, easier than the first but a conflagration in my chest
Warns me to take you slow and easy like Sunday morning.
I refuse, and toss you back, yearning for your burn burn burn.
Heavy lidded, slurry tongued; a smile at my lips:
Soon.
Stephanie Andrea Allen is a southerner, scholar, and writer. Her work can be found in Big Echo: Critical Science Fiction Magazine, Black From the Future: A Collection of Black Speculative Writing, Sinister Wisdom, and in her collection of short stories and essays, A Failure to Communicate. She is a 2018 Hurston/Wright Foundation Workshop Alum and is currently working on a collection of Black speculative short fiction and her first novel. You can find her on Twitter at @S_Andrea_Allen and on her website, https://www.stephanieandreaallen.com/
