Unseen Scars (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781998394869)

The evocative title of this collection, "Unseen Scars," addresses wounds as well as feelings. Often there are no winners, both narrator and subject clash with feelings that are unresolved. It is not intended to be a "happy, good feeling," book, but there are happy times in it; Martin' sister's "Old Words," make him feel warm whenever those words are near. They are offset by the hopelessness found in Dead Men Walking, where "Black mothers give birth to stillborn sons destined for the Walking Dead." Yes, there is humor also, when a Southern Black father tells his young son, "Don't drink coffee it will make you Black," the son counters with, "I've drunk plenty of milk and it hasn't made me white." Unseen Scars rides the waves of truth and falsehood to portray through wounds and jests a portrait of urban prejudice and why it has sat so comfortably alongside us for so long.