Black Beautiful Me
Black Me
Black beautiful me,
uneducated to cultivate your very existence,
strung up to test the strength
of your tree limbs
mis-educated in the classroom
and displayed as grime beneath
your feet,
ignorant of your hunger for plunder,
your need to control
whomever you meet,
a blackberry stain you can’t bleach out,
another ugly smudge in your history
that reveals your
backward Christian love for me…
black me
A silhouette of a man
jumping over hurdle after hurdle
for a seat on your lap
only to snuggle within a mirage
of acceptance,
held down by economic chains and social shackles
to keep me on my knees
at your feet,
crippling my will to be,
indifferent to my self-destructive behavior
to create a pain to numb the pain
from being…
black me
And when I scream “Fuck your hurdle”
you shoot me down
beat me down
lock me down
cage, gag and strip me
only to awaken in me rage that fuels
a resilience to do more
to be more
than what you’ve convinced the world
to expect of me …
black me.
Your hate will not become mine,
even as I fight for self-preservation
amidst the puddles of mud
you place me,
scavenging through the slums
for the crumbs you scraped at me,
that I use to re-create
what you destroyed and hid
from me
that which was by me,
your perception and projections
of me are not me
but merely your terror-stricken
fear of me
for how you’ve done
for how you’re doing me
constantly doing me…
beautiful black me.
