picture she black
she bring steel spine like winnie cries
but they couldn’t break her spirit w/vicious lies
picture she black
she bring love And power like Cleopatra
but scorn her and there’ll be War coming atcha
she bring victory and muscle like Nzingha queen
what stands short can haunt your dreams fierce and make you scream
she bring thought like assata- it aint free
but if things was right they
oughta be
picture she black
picture she black
reborn
warn torn
free form
picture she black
picture she you
picture she me
picture she future
today she sits one visible brick
on an invisible foundation
hidden criss crosses of connections
bringing like minds together across space-time continuums
we exist in the now
scribing a foundation
dancing as
one movement
one mind
building
one nation
building fires for others to seek
smiling into the future of a
realigned
redignified
redefined
society across man-made divisions and lines… across time…
picture she black
she stand tall with a poem in her fist
she seem to stand tall even when she sit
she sing subtle sob songs of pain
in face of oppressors
smiling softly to hide the seething
smiling an undecipherable liberation
into our hearts across time
picture she black
she crouch on invisible subway
she skin so dry it crack
she takes them to the line
aint even no looking back
even if they scared or shy
she say ‘you can be free now and die, or
you can be free later alive’
smiling behind a mask of iron resolve
across time
picture she black
picture she black
she bring blue stain scars of cotton pain
she withstood the storms so we who she knew would be born
would all be free someday
picture she black
she breathes free looking at the stars
with no care but progress
she proud of her future and her history
she never know what it is to be
cold, hungry or enslaved in mind or body
she can love without fear
she can write without starving
she can appreciate her own beauty
she can live anywhere
she can go when she pleases
she can easily breathe in
she can
she can
she can
smiling into a history book
looking at us who paved the way
thanking us in her heart for our bloodied tears and aching backs
when you are weary think of her, maybe your great-great-great-great-great
grandchild
for her the pain is worth it
picture she black