Simply because I am black I’m expected to be blank
Like the empty page of paper waiting for who to fill my leaves
Like shoes in a shoe shop priced only at window shopping
Pages of unwritten script, they expect us to be melanin queen
Like boxes of soured grape, they want us to taste like red wine
Fine and simple vitamin
Black girl
Like pills, they wanna take us overdose

Teaching our sons to teach their sons
The art to demolish our faded polished mind
They said our religion was a fabric of lost slaves
In exchange, they made out of us source of slavery

Check out the best handmaids are black
They said we needed civilization
We started breeding civil wars
Tearing our black skin with white sticks

Who doesn’t know the ethics of our skin as an umbrella in Sokoto Or palms used to bend iron and still cuddle wives
Who never knew that our broken tongue never broke homes
But now Degree is in marital list
And husbands can’t kiss wives because of lipstick

We knew tie and dye with pride
Without having to prick our fingers with a needle
We could feel the earth and shade their skin with our feet before we started piercing their eyes with 12-inch pencil heel mind

We knew how to wrap our hair in split seconds before we started tying gele with an hour
We knew how to feel beautiful with our dirty feet and face
Now we’re still spelling fashion
With people on make-up but can’t shape brows

I am black
I admire proper English but can’t fix my collocation
I chose my wardrobe collection and contradict my combination
Now we have people on suit with slippers
When we could have used Usûûbo with our feet bare

I am black
I believe so much in luck that I forget preparation
With an admiration of a silver glass and no care of the soured grape
We’re still spelling fashion
That’s why we wear cardigan during summer and bikini during winter
When we could wear Dashiki with the beauty of a peacock

They served us a meal with dirty and hands and left us to still feed on the crumbs
That’s why we further our studies beyond the border
Cause our education story was never complete
That’s why Religion is half-bred cause it wasn’t initiated with the right motive

I am black
Most times I feel so empty that I could pour a river of agony
I am black
I have the freedom to make my own mistakes
I am black
Brown as coffee in my daughter’s tea, she keeps me awake
With No Apologies
I am Black

Psychic