This poem will be part of the 6th Volume of THE TRADITIONAL WOMEN VOLUME 6: TELL YOU NO LIES (June 2024).

They don’t make them like that no more that’s what the old man told me

when I asked about who

that woman that they spoke was

They said

“Well, that’s Miss Honey.”

All fierce and brown

and Black and fire—

She cared a 22 in her underwire!

There was no one

like her from Atlanta to Japan

New Orleans, Shanghai or Birmingham when she walked down the street every man would go “Goddamn!”

Honey so sweet they say,

but that sting be something else

she count your pockets

and keep her own weath.

Miss Honey so bad

they said she made

lightning blush,

They say Miss Honey

love is so good

it’ll make a man leave gold rush!

They say, Miss Honey

is too sweet to die,

and too bad to live,

but there was one time

She held the world

On the head of a dime.

They say Miss Honey,

With all her power

Have the most saved man

Looking for her after one hour.

The Delta made her diamond

Fearsome, rare and precious

So much so They say

When Miss Honey passed

Told the devil that she didn’t need a ride

She told Saint Peter that her room was

Ready And she was already

gonna get was she knew to be hers.

Miss Honey a bad one—

And it’s rumored

her nieces is just like her

No one like her

under the Earth,

or under the sea,

but if you close in the breezes,

they still whisper “Honey”

-JBHarris, 2.29.2024