my soulsisters
the beautiful ones
with beauty beyond measure
but not by the fall of your hair
so why do you camouflage it
behind wigs and weave
colors, dye, and make believe
neither the length nor its color
are as important
as what it covers

my soulsisters
the beautiful ones
with caramel eyes of hazel brown
kissed sweet by the sun
but hidden in darkness
behind dismal shades
of Green/Blue/Gray
the hue of your eyes
pale in comparison
to the radiance of their dance

my soulsisters
the beautiful ones
your name is not bitch
you are nobody's whore
your bodies
are not sex tools
to be hammered and used
or weapons to strike and abuse
You...are Makeda
You...are Amina
You...are Nefertari
and You are ALL African symbols of God's beauty

my soulsisters
the most beautiful dark ones
the color of the shadow
taken from the natural light
you need not
be a chemical fiend
to Mrs. Maybelline's
light-skinned dreams
or dabbing alcohol swabs and creams
while liquid self-hate
screams from a bottle
sold over the counter
because you can never truly contain
a thing of beauty
it may be pulled apart
studied and emulated
and made to appear in likeness
to something subservient to perfection
for an original can never be duplicated
in a tanning bed reading Cosmo
hoping that "the big Cancer" light
hits the leather face
in the death bed next to yours

my soulsisters
the beautiful ones
as capable as any man ever dared
with freakish strength of child bare
and intricately mysterious minds
woven with TaBoo, VooDoo, and
other Mystic complexities
that are beyond your understanding
so you simply call them Intuition
completely unaware
that your acutely divine senses
are in fact a third eye Prophecy
passed down by the Queen of Sheeba
as she rode into Jerusalem
to question a King about a lie that he told

my soulsisters
the beautiful ones
you are all Magical/Sacred/Glorious
Gifts from God
send to us as a constant reminder
of the beauty
from which this world began
and of the beauty
to which it must return