This poem was inspired by an outing to Lenox Mall
in ATL when I discovered that I was in the company
of three beautiful women who looked nothing like me,
but our hearts were beating in time.
(For Kathy Cross, Charlene, Tia Shabazz and Me)
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Multihued
exotic sisters
stepping high and striding long legged
giving psychological fever
to glares –from souls who never saw a rainbow dance
Dorothy dissed us before returning from Oz
missed us when she sang OUR song and lost our cause…
cause we hold little blue birds in the palms of our hands
and we have a brain, a heart, some courage…
and know our way home
One – she be that
light, bright
damn near white sista
a sister no less… don't take no mess
her soul is black and heart is pure gold
A bi-racial beauty crossing Africa with Europe
creating calm in a space where there was none before her
now that’s peace…
Two –she be that
yellow skin gal, exotically slanted eyed
Japanese culture teaches her submissiveness
yet she walks strong with Diva pride
left a country that holds her gracefully
to come to another that thinks
she only knows how to put on a full set of nail tips for $25
now that’s sad…
Three –she’d be me
thick thighed and chocolate toned
kinky hair covers the intelligent dome
but all you see is my ‘big-bones’
sisters check me secretly, wishing they could be me
not realizing that what I have…
they got… just aint using it intelligently
boys call my lap their home
men think my home their throne
but I aint having it!
not until he erects mine next to his…
not until I know he can handle the biz…
now that’s truth…
Four –she be that
butter… pecan… tan… melody
gotcha wondering if ‘Indian’ in her family
but she aint Cherokee,
nor does she want to be
she just is…
she just is, beautiful, intelligent, kind and will
cut you to the quick if you cross that line
then could heal you with her second wind
if she let’s you in…
and check you diva professionally all over again
now that’s complexity in its simplest state…
Somewhere over the rainbow where peace,
sadness, truth and complexity live…
Women dance silently…
Rainbow Women…
Have you ever seen us?
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