Lucille Clifton
When this life is over, what do you want people to say about you?
If that day was tomorrow, what do you think people would say?
Is it the same?
If not, why not?
note to my self
it's a black thing you wouldn't understand--(t-shirt)
amira baraka--i refuse to be judged by white men.
or defined. and i see
that even the best believe
they have that right,
believe that
what i mean
as if words only matter in the world they know
as if when i choose words
i must choose those
that they can live with
even if something inside me
cannot live,
as if my story is
so trivial
we can forget together,
as if i am not scarrred,
as if my family enemy
does not look like them,
as if i have not reached
across our history to touch,
to soothe on more than one
occasion
and will again,
although the merely human
is denied me still
and i am now no longer beast
but saint.
If that day was tomorrow, what do you think people would say?
Is it the same?
If not, why not?
note to my self
it's a black thing you wouldn't understand--(t-shirt)
amira baraka--i refuse to be judged by white men.
or defined. and i see
that even the best believe
they have that right,
believe that
what i mean
as if words only matter in the world they know
as if when i choose words
i must choose those
that they can live with
even if something inside me
cannot live,
as if my story is
so trivial
we can forget together,
as if i am not scarrred,
as if my family enemy
does not look like them,
as if i have not reached
across our history to touch,
to soothe on more than one
occasion
and will again,
although the merely human
is denied me still
and i am now no longer beast
but saint.