Deja Carr - We Held Hands in Prayers, Then I Forgot You

Deja Carr, poet and musician of the project known as Mal Devisa, creates a altar to gratitude and mixed blessings with her “We Held Hands in Prayers, Then I Forgot You”. Redolent with May Day fragments and colorful vernal imagery, “We Held Hands in Prayers, Then I Forgot You” is the perfect canvas to usher in the vibrant warmth of spring’s peak. To explore Deja’s other work as Mal Devisa, visit https://www.topshelfrecords.com/roster/mal-devisa.

We Held Hands in Prayers, Then I Forgot You

The man upstairs
loves me
He sent me fresh blueberries on the bike path last season

So I walk and hide my face to spread 249 seeds
Strawberry Hands (like philadelphia)
—

In ten years, me and my springtime lovers will see
The fruits of our labour. No women hungry, no-cry

Jamaican arms spread in the bath, counting pages left to deflower
I’ve sipped the water, dirty, to line my throat with body. Nobody knows

The trouble I’ve washed down drains

Lipstick on my socks from do-gooding in the corridors of white houses

White fences. The man upstairs…

He made them and I’ve disagreed, time
And time again

The bodies falling down,
Ever-present-
swift– Catch me with daffodils in my mouth.

Catch me with worldly lungs filled with carrot colored smoke
Big muscles, underneath a fat head I am not as pretty
As the women in folk songs
But the guitars always stop for me
To pray
As if I were walking down the street one lit afternoon in May
With a bouquet of lovers trailing the waters
In a grateful, okra colored
body

Deja Carr

Deja Carr is an artist and writer of Jamaican descent originally from New York, who currently lives in Amherst. She has been awarded by Harvard for activism in music, as well as City Space, the Wildflower Collective and others. Carr is the spearhead behind the project Mal Devisa, which is a songwriting, liberation, and poetry project. Masterfully a genre-hopper, her work spans everything from soulful rock to unabashed hip hop, lush experimental to folk, lo-fi to jazz. Often accompanied by heavy bass, clever loops, and hard-hitting lyrics – her voice is unmistakable, yet versatile.