How do I erase this stain you left on my skin?

I'd like to take back the no's you didn't hear,

keep them in case I need them again.

My cries have fallen onto deaf ears,

my hurt onto emotionless hearts.

How do I look at myself the same way?

How do I answer the next girl who asks

if she is next

I don't believe what you say
because I see what you do.

"To serve and to protect"
but here lies the body of another black man.

Black woman will go through racism, absent father, abuse by spouse and still shine.

She will protect with fierce love she has but only experienced from her own struggling mother.

She will teach love and forgiveness as if being victim to hate were foreign to her.

She will sweat

and cry

and bleed

then cover her wounds and continue being the pillar of this earth.

She is beautiful, despite being told she isn't.

She is God's creation.

She is you.

You are she.

And black woman,

You   are   powerful.

I remember sitting alone in a park.
My shoulders arced, I felt no peace.

The air was humid,
Clouds were gray.
I thought
at least the rain would put me at ease.

I whispered a short prayer-
the kind that was rushed and abrupt.

Then I asked God what mankind is that He was so mindful of us.

Sacrosanct- something that is considered to be too important to change or question.

Then the leaves belonging to the trees surrounding me all bumped one another
Whispering back in a christened voice

and suddenly

humanity became sacrosanct.

He heard me.

I looked into your eyes and never looked away.

Days without you were always the same,
a day was just
another day.

My mind without you became just another place-
an empty space
filled
with mornings that were just okay and would build
into nights that would never end in a haste.

I would recite our moments together.
Moments that became distant memories altogether.

Consoled
because if this was God-willed then at least you and I could be
forever.

She said change was good;

contrary to her life decisions-

every day

life continued the same way.

But she didn't know how things would change

After the day she decided
to stop changing herself.

After the day she decided
to stop tormenting herself.

After the day

she started to grow herself.

Believing herself.

Trusting herself; her emotions.

Loving what was, and is, and is to come.

And   from   that   day,

nothing was ever the same.

I was a sunflower;

in all my colorful glory
a happy sight to behold
—more to my nature than could be imagined.

But you preferred roses;

Soft.
With petals that called your fingers
to linger as they please.