Nowhere in her poem, ​“Self-Por­trait with Impend­ing War”, does Lau­ren K. Alleyne men­tion a war, but the rumors of war and the dis­qui­et of the world seem to haunt this ​“self-por­trait” in which the self extends far beyond Alleyne’s per­son­al­ized self and attempts to achieve a con­nec­tion to all who must con­sid­er the com­pli­ca­tions of a home that is at once embrac­ing and dan­ger­ous. In the end, Alleyne’s poem is a jere­mi­ad — a warn­ing of what can be lost to the wars that are always impending.