found poem

 I. Found poem

Beauty is not liberation

Attention is not power—

Dark skinned girls get suspended more in schools. They are more susceptible to the school to prison pipeline. 

In certain areas dark skinned people cannot work in certain industries so....

    you think a man finding me attractive erases systemic violence?

Think again.

Nearly all of us are descendants of women who had no other option in life other than to be a wife and a mother. 

In the way I felt 

when I found out

I could be more than a wife

More than a mother 

I am a mother

A mother to myself

A mother to love

Opportunities to love 

    will always arise

We can do anything, go anywhere

Live in light 

Burning light

Take advantage of this freedom 

Body of light

Body of mother

so many would have killed for

Light beheld

I give it to you

a full life. 

I give it to you

I am a mother.

read at Orinthology Jazz Club | Las Brujas Club 6.17.25