To be a black girl is to be ancient
A walking cemetery
A womb to only carry lynched sons and kidnapped daughters
Have feet made of fossils
Learning the oil spill of her birth
A hip strong enough for her kin
An underground railroad kind of back
Backside to sit glass on
And still enough of herself to share in
Easy like Sunday morning
Quiet in her protest
I said to be a black girl is
To be a crying sun
Tears of skies holding onto stars
Is to be a sky holding itself close at night
Be a night not worth remembering
Be a memory yearning to be forgotten
I said to be a black girl
Is to forget how pixie dust burn our palms
Got cigarette holes on our shirt sleeves from all this lovin
All this not being loved back
All these front lines we be on
All this God we hold inside us
And dont this be the Same God they say ain't black
Same white God they say ain't woman
I said to be a black girl is knowing
There are nations crucifying us
Praise how pretty we is when we bleed
But never how strong we are when cleaning out the stains
And we confuse this for love too often
Confuse
Bruise for beauty mark
Burden for sacrifice
Mistress for wife
And they use this love for justifying leaving us for dead
For calling our black anything less than magic
I said to be a black girl
Is to forget how pixie dust burn our palms
