“Kiese Says, Black People Deserve Beautiful Sentences, but a Fragment is the Best I Can Do / Songbook for the Names I Have Been Called,” a Poem by Omotara James

Kiese Says, Black People Deserve Beautiful Sentences, but a Fragment is the Best I Can Do / Songbook for the Names I Have Been Called

I might be
The most beautiful Black bitch you’ve ever seen
The least original sunrise

I might be
darker than the dark velvet of the moon

Might be the slow creep of comfort edging you back
Might be joy’s affirmative call to action

Be the huckleberry grown fat, fuck with sweetness
Be the ugly moan of pleasure bust open

Be
As lopsided as the bountiful branch of the fruiting tree

More fragile than the silence of untroubled water
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble
I might be

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Song of My Softening by Omotara James is available via Alice James.