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Celebrating black women through history
Table of Contents
Intro
I Am Strong.
My Black Hair Is Beautiful.
My Heritage Was Deleted.
Rape.
Weary.
Mothers & Daughters.
Surrendering.
Intro
This collection of poems is tangibly raw, describing the voices of Black women whose souls were beautiful yet broken in spirit. Their songs — filled with pain — have been passed down through the generations into their daughters’ hearts, bodies, and minds.
I Am Strong.
There is beauty in my blackness
There is blackness in my beauty
There is cocoa in my skin
There is beauty in my kin
I carry the weight of a thousand pounds
My rage is louder than a thousand sounds
My beautiful lips stay silent by day
My strength is a storm hidden away
My spirit is broken but my soul is alive
There is beauty in my blackness
I am a Black Butterfly.
Give me my freedom
Give me my dignity
Give me my sanity
Give me my beauty
My Black Hair Is Beautiful.
My hair pattern buzzes like a bee
But I don’t need your sympathy
I’m beautiful because I’m me
My hair is long
My hair is short
My hair not what you see
My hair is everything
My hair is the definition of creativity
Thick and coily
Curly and nappy
Never oily
They call my hair nappy
They think it’s an insult
But my hair is beautiful
Long then short
It’s so versatile
The ends of my hair
Break
Like my brittle bones
Our souls are nourished only through song
While my back breaks each day before dawn
My Heritage Was Deleted.
Torn from my family
Ripped into pieces
Shipped off to nowhere
Enraptured in calamity
They believe that they own us
They believe we aren’t human
They believe they are above us
They believe we are nothing
The beat of my chest
Roars as we build your land as guests
My freedom is gone
While you force in me one of your own
Take everything from me
Leave nothing left
Rob me of my freedom
But you feel no regret
Break my back
While the skin on lips crack
Tears come down my face
While you continue to rape my race
I was only a girl
For a little of time
I was only a girl
Til I was sold for less than a dime
Rape.
I’m lucky I can see the sky
I’m lucky I’ve never felt his hand on my thigh
A stream of red
Runs down my dress
The kiss of nature
It greets me with distress
I felt ripped open
The first time I bled
I cried in agony
As I watched the steady rhythm of his head
Because he always bothered me about it
Because of what I fear is desired beneath it
To match my beautiful curly tresses
Because you’re never safe in them
Because of how weak it made me feel
They were.
In our black thick lips
We create ambiguous flowers
In our black thick lips
You shove your White Power
My thick thighs are nothing but different
My beautiful soul has a unique scent
My blackness is attractive
You like my tint
You want a taste
So I lay still like cement
I lay there and take it
While you fill me with hate
All they do is take, take, take
The gold between my thighs
Feeds the hatred behind his eyes
His body I lay under
As he beats against his plunder
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I fight and scramble
I reach for the edge
He pulls up my dress
And grabs me by the head
I stay in the house
If I let him have it
I’m still a slave
But it’s better than out there
I see things
Cause I stay in the house
I stay quiet though
As quiet as a mouse
I’m not to be found
If I don’t make a sound
Maybe he’ll forget
That I’m even around
Through time
I’ve been taught to be worthless
I’m used to it now
I’m not priceless
I’ve never loved
I’ve never been loved
I’ve only be raped
I’ve only been sold
Always with dehumanizing debate
I was taught to mute
The song of my soul
I was taught to accept mistreatment
Between my loins
I was taught that I’m nothing
But a thing
I was taught to not want
Anything
Take off your shirt
Rip off my skirt
I feed your livestock
You feed me your cock
It happens all the time
Till I’m too old
I’m worth less than nothing
It happened all the time
So, I forgot it was happening
Make something pink
Nothing I can keep
Make another thing
Someone else taken from me
Don’t take my pink flower
The only thing good
Don’t take my pink flower
You treacherous coward
Don’t take my pink flower
You took the last one
Don’t take my pink flower
Please let me hold my son
Weary.
These curves hold my pain
These second set of lips hold my shame
These hands of mine are tired
The fire in my soul grows dire
Pain is normal
I’m used to it
A life without pain
Is a foreign concept
Mothers & Daughters.
I feel the scars beneath my back
I fight the tears; I stay in tack
I learn to be silent as I teach to her
Which is why she never cries out
When her pain is too much to bear
I learn to forget
Just like my mother
She learned to forget
Just like her mother
My daughters learned
To accept anything
That’s how you survive
You become nothing
I’ve been taught
That I’m not to provide
I’ve been taught
To depend on a no-good man
I’ve been taught
To be fine with getting beaten
I’ve been taught
To never speak out
I’ve been taught
To ignore the cries of my sisters
Surrendering.
I’m nothing more than a maim and a mute
My eyes and limbs are only ever put to use
Everything has been taken from me
I’m an empty soul, barely walking
I’m beaten and raped and tossed aside
I’m forced to do things
I yearn to die
My thighs are thick for his fields and eyes
What’s between my legs was never mine
It’s best to be silent
When things aren’t right
We learn to be quiet
That’s how we fight
I’m always drowning
In this sea
I’m always drowning
Because I’ll never be free
My earth shatters
Beneath my chest
My soul cries out
It’s bleeding to death
What have I done
To deserve this pain
What have I done
I’m going insane
I don’t want to feel
Make me numb
I’m having dark thoughts
I might just succumb
Who am I
I’ll never know
I’m worked and worked
I’m kept unknown
I’ve learned to accept
What’s given
Don’t ask for more
If I deserved more
I would get more
I weep
Because I’m tired of all this shit
I weep
Because I don’t know if it will ever end
–
I never discovered
My many gifts
I never discovered
The beauty in my blackness
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