Don’t get it ****** up
I ain’t hard ‘cause I never broke,
I’m hard ‘cause I broke open and built castles outta my own bones.
I stood ten toes down for a man that laid hands on me
yeah, I ate that pain, fed it to the fire in my chest,
came out with my crown straight, edges laid,
heart still big enough to hold heaven and hell.

I done fed folks who stole my last crumb,
smiled in faces that would slit my back wide open,
and I still showed up whole
that’s loyalty you can’t copy,
that’s God sitting in my spine saying,
“Get up, baby — they can’t **** what I keep blessing.”

I raised babies that ain’t come from me,
kissed foreheads that never carried my blood,
loved ‘em like my own ‘cause that’s just who I be
my love don’t check DNA,
my loyalty don’t clock out when it gets rough.

I’m the one who survived the silence
and the side eyes,
the half-*** apologies and the fake prayers.
I’m the hush before the boom,
the rose that bite back when you think it’s sweet.

See, they wanna know how hard I really am?
I’m the pretty with the pit bull bite,
the soft with the street in my step,
the prayer and the promise
I bend but I don’t bow,
I bruise but I never beg.

So speak on me gentle
my name got weight you can’t carry.
I’m the woman you can’t bury ‘cause I’m seeds and roots
and every storm they said would drown me
just watered my garden.

How hard am I?
I’m hard enough to still forgive,
still rise,
still stand ten toes for people who couldn’t stand for me.
I’m God’s favorite problem
blessed, battle-tested, still pretty when I’m ******.

Try me
watch me break your curses
with the same hands I fed you with.
I’m everything they said I’d never be,
and baby, I’m just getting started.