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.

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     Am I ready for you?

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     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.

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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/