November 4, 2008

Of a nation built
on the backs of a race
and a race won
on the back of a nation

Today,
a time in history when
we give THANKS
to our elders,
the marching leaders,
non-violent fighters
and silent movers
of Civil Rights’ barricade.

Today,
a time in history when
we say THANHS
to our elders,
the ones that
shed their multicultural blood
in our precedent
and on our path
to this day.

America voted and spike
to a world that listened
hearing our united cry
Multicultural blend of patriotism
believes in a gentleman
reflected in our skins
and ideals.

Our new leader
a dreamer that believed
we could
and
YES! WE DID!
because we counted…
we were a part of his
story and he is a part of
ours
a history being told as it is written
spoken to our children
with a broad future
Yes, we can!
Tes, we can
become anything together
as King dreamed
and we now sing.

Gratitude

Fire, Honey, Storm, and Flight

I am quick
to express myself
the haste of it feels more passionate
than if I waited a moment longer
impulsivity
negates depravity
and my emotions are of the utmost importance
so I don’t hesitate
when I say that you really
piss me off and
are amazing
make me sick and
complete me
have no idea and
know me so well
should leave me be and
need to hold me

words uttered so quickly
that they don’t require time
because they exist in the moment’s feeling
not always perfected by
a second thought
and I am not perfect either
I am the juxtaposition of fire, honey, storm, and flight
and I don’t always know how I am, or what I am, or where I may land
from the journeys that I take
but I love you within
and without the error of my ways
never changing and never the same
I feel the words as they breeze around me and through me
racing, spinning on the edge of being
unruly, wild, and liberated
and the world feels perfectly tilted because
I am quick
to express myself
in love

Express

The Mighty

No salutes or flag bearers or anthems
or cherished combat boots or gleaming metal tags

or outrage

for the lost ones
who were the bravest
and the mighty
just trees and ropes and whips
and dogs and bullets and rape

and mutilation

for the sold ones
striped of the loved ones
bred for the new ones

behold the solders of the many failed
yet never abandoned battles
for the right to own
their bodies and to keep
their families
together

I consider my fathers to have
been the bravest
and the mighty
royal warriors by blood-right
no auction price could ever truly place
value on the brave and the mighty
fathers, sons, and brothers who lost battles
but won their freedom
and stood as brave and mighty men
only to be bound and hung
by the heartless

I consider my fathers to have
been the bravest
and the mighty
to know that living was hard
and death wasn’t the easiest
but in the land of the brave
it sure was the freest

Brave

First Love’s Kiss

We hold hands and clutch
tight with our fingers sweaty and
white-tipped
in the delicious fear
of being caught
at first love’s kiss
that risk of wanting a taste of my
cherry-glossed lips
draws you in closer
and my heart races not only
at the warm smell of your skin and not because
soon people will begin to pass our corner
wanting their few moments alone
with the risk of first love’s kiss
but because I am ready
to test my technique
(practiced on the soft side of my fisted hand)

I think you hesitate in want of
someone seeing you steal
the sweetness from me
pride in boys is tempting
but the silver-braced smile
and the sweet smell of my cherry lip-gloss
are too much for you
and you lean in
and kiss me
with the swiftness
of a moment
turned memory
and the risk becomes
the worth
of a first love

Risky

Melanin

It’s the year of the light-skinned!
No wait,
the era of the dark-skinned!
PLEASE
let’s all agree that Black has always been
beautiful
Your recent pride does not make it…
fashionable.
Black is not a trend
and cannot be emulated or retroactively acquired
by anyone.
Though, acknowledge that my attire and hair IS
fashionable.

Thank God and Glory for your Black beauty,
ladies and gentlemen
my melanin and your melanin
both kissed by the same sun
our varying degrees are shades of love
made by sunlight and
an open sky
raise that face to mother Sun
so that everything in nature can see
we too are the flowers
blooming in a rainbow
of brown beauty
nut-brown,
cocoa,
chocolate,
chestnut,
golden,
amber,
caramel,
mocha,
tan,
burnt umber,
ebony,
coffee,
and all the shades in between.
I am so blessed
that Black
is beautiful.

Fashionable

For the Audio Impotents

I am not
without understanding.
I need you to know that.
I begin to speak and you don’t
even
hear
me.
You say, you see me. See, that’s
the thing with you visually
aroused
audio impotents.
You see me
but you don’t hear me.
I’m speaking words so deep and proving my point so clear
that if this conversation was the Atlantic Ocean,
I’d be the light shining within the
Mariana Trench
and you’d be
the shadow of a child’s
plastic sailboat.
Conversely lacking the stimulation
that I need.
You say that you see me
and you smile
and I smile
and I pretend that what you say is intelligent
and funny
and that the sound of your voice
isn’t like a hum of a refrigerator.
So that when I speak
you’ll listen and not be afraid
of the depth of what I really have to say
I’m not a vision, I’m the visionary.
I’m not a joke, I’m the belly rumbling
laugh
I am all of the thoughts
and expressions
At the bare minimum,
a woman’s essence.
So, don’t be afraid of what I say
when I answer
what you ask.
You see, I’ve been
waiting to be heard,
to be understood.

Exceptional

before we lost

before we lost
everything
our senses
our humanity
our purpose in life
we read books
and shared thoughts
and discussed our differences
we learned to acknowledge
and tolerate
the things that made us
a beautiful mosaic
created by
blessed by
loved by God

the importance of what we are
became the significance of what we could be
and instead of dwelling
on irrelevant details
and differences
in worship
and thought
and love
we had everything
our senses
our humanity
our purpose in life

one day, I hope to believe we
were and are
not irrelevant
beasts like other animals
soon to be extinct

Irrelevant

irrelevent

I take a knee in
protest just as we would in prayer.
But what do you want me to
pray for?
The very thing
that I should be guaranteed,
the very thing
that was promised by birth?
The commonality
of us?
How you are simply
descendent from the
ancestors you share with
the cousins you stole
and sold
and humiliated
and dehumanized
so that you could sell
your soul?
No, I refuse to feel
irrelevent simply
because you are insignificant
in your understanding
of why
my blackness can’t be irrelevant
to society?

Irrelevant

Saturday Laziness

Sometimes I succumb
to the lullaby of Saturday evening
with everything to do
and time to do it
but no desire to move beyond
the few feet of comfort
that being at peace
with no agenda
or alarm clock
but still rising before
eight
and napping by noon
reading Coates and Kendi
and listening to Jill and Anthony
while my mind
makes lists
and sends warnings
of how these lazy moments
will create a very hectic Sunday afternoon
with everything to do
and no time to do
but for now, I succumb
to the laziness
that fives me peace

Succumb