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demothering.
    soft.
    liveable.
    –– before you get that key made

the worst
    thing that ever happened
    to
    the world
    was
    the white man coming across gun powder.
    –– the end of the world | the beginning of white supremacy

soon
    the moon will come from my lips
    and
    you will not remember your name.
    –– oshún

there is a phantom language in my mouth.
    a tongue beneath my tongue.
    will i ever
    remember what
    i sound
    like.
    will i ever come home.
    –– african american i

i lost a whole continent.
    a whole continent from my memory.
    unlike all other hyphenated americans
    my hyphen is made of blood. feces. bone.
    when africa says hello
    my mouth is a heartbreak
    because i have nothing in my tongue
    to answer her.
    i do not know how to say hello to my mother.
    –– african american ii

can you be a daughter.
    if you have no
    mother language.
    –– african american iii

how beautiful
    that you can lay down a map
    and with a straight finger
    show me who you are.
    you say
    'show me, show me who you are.'
    i tell my soft tight finger
    'do not be afraid'
    i slow and lightly
    lay it on africa (as if i do not belong to her)
    and
    then
    you ask me
    ‘where.’
    –– african american iiii

we are afraid.
    ashamed.
    of
    africa.
    –– the secret we never say | african american iiiii

i like
    the heat
    in certain words.
    the warm travel.
    the low sun.

you do not have to be a fire
    for
    every mountain blocking you.
    you could be a water
    and
    soft river your way to freedom
    too.
    –– options

sometimes the night wakes in the
    middle of me
    and i can do nothing
    but
    become the moon.

i want to see
    brown and black folks
    photographed
    by
    brown and black eyes.
    –– eyes

to not be safe on the earth.
    simply
    because
    of the color of your skin.
    how does a being survive this.
    –– trayvon martin

if
    a man
    can
    only show vulnerability
    for
    what is between my legs.
    can
    only
    be
    a
    heart
    during
    sex.
    if an orgasm
    is
    the only way
    he
    can
    weep.
    what is his life
    but
    a cage.
    –– prison

listen to my poems.
    but
    do not look for me.
    look for you.
    –– you

i am not yours.
    i did not make the long hard journey through and across
the spirit world
    to
    be a man’s ocean.
    my body is not yours.
    my mouth is not yours.
    my water is not yours.
    nothing i am belongs to you.
    unless i decide
    to
    open my hand
    and
    give it to you.
    –– birthmarks

you will find your way.
    it is
    in the
    same place
    as
    your love.
    –– seek

when
    you tell your self
    ‘you can have your energy back.’
    after years
    of
    giving
    it
    to white people.
    and
    their
    requirements for acceptance. for supple colonization.
digesting
    their beliefs.
    thoughts.
    opinions.
    of
    you.
    when you remove them from your nucleus.
    your being is then
    allowed
    to
    focus
    its power
    on
    turning your life.
    into.
    your soul’s work.
    you become yours.
    again.
    –– decolonization | center

to
    call me
    black.
    is
    one of the most beautiful.
    incredible.
    compliments
    you could ever give me.
    –– insult

your skin
    smells
    like light.
    i think you are
    the
    moon.

i broke myself
    dreaming of you last night.
    the
    water and flowers
    have been
    working on me all morning.
    –– seamstresses

if you show
    someone the sun in your bones
    and they reject you
    you must remember.
    they hurt themselves this very same way.
    –– unable

‘no’
    might make them angry
    but
    it will make you free.
    –– if no one has ever told you, your freedom is more important than their anger

there is a tender thing
    i am made of.
    i have always felt before i breathe.

and what if i write of you.
    is that more love than you can handle.

be a lion.
    i will still be water.

where are my legs. where are my legs. i had to give them to my babies so they could swim back home to me. back home to me. back home to me. i rubbed the sun all in their hair. every single birth. i rubbed sun in their hair. so they remember who they look like. who they look like.