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Poetry & Art

Pressure

Must apply pressure—I mean on my records. 

I was supposed to buy a heavier needle for my record player almost three years ago. 

Some records—new and old, like SZA and Stevie Wonder—skip without a proper needle. 

Songs in the Key of Life lose CTRL without the right kind of pressure. 

Without something to hold them beyond the surface. 

Maybe I’ve put such a small task on hold for so long because I didn’t want, 

or wasn’t ready for… the pressure. 

But I can’t function, grow, or face the music without pressure; 

without the weight of a conversation, having the audacity to go deeper. 

That weight comes at a price that I wasn’t quite ready to pay. 

But my deep cuts, my classics, require something valuable. 

And, perhaps, now I see myself deserving of something that will 

boost the quality of sound around me.

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by LySaundra Campbell

Storyteller based in NYC. Advocate for Black justice and Black joy.


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