Tag: poem

Courage shouldn’t be required to love a Black Woman. 
To accept a heart given freely or a life offered for reciprocal tribute. 
Where is the danger in respecting one who aches with neglect 
from being habitually dismissed and discarded  
throughout centuries of generations? 
What terrors does this global shadow craft present? 
False images of projected insecurities, self-hate, irrational anger,  
exasperated impatience, and I-got-this-don’t-need-you independence.  
The illusions formed by men of hypersexuality, low morality, and mean-spiritedness to assuage  
their proclivities of abuse, torment, separation, abandonment, rejection, and destruction 
Society built a totem full of grievances, animosity and dissatisfaction and  
called it Black Womanhood. Onto this altar are thrown the most violent human attacks. 
Yet despite this intentional sacrilege, the Black Woman’s labor is expected without delay 
or complaint, her support is claimed as an entitlement right,  
her nurturing care as a duty of her skin, gender and status.  
Indeed, no part of a Black Woman’s body or existence is expected to be under her control. Everything she is, society and man claim as their droit du seigneur. 
The world delights in telling Black Women we are nothing.  
We are the least desired and even then, only wanted for what we give.  
We are rarely valued for our personhood; often only praised for  
the volume of our production and serving unto depletion or death. 
Yet ask a Black Woman who she is and be prepared to bask in the light of her glory. 
We see ourselves as the embodiment of love, conduits of grace, dispensers of mercy.  
We are Wisdom, Discernment and Truth.  
We are Unbroken, Unbowed, Still Standing.  
Society sees one thing. We Are Another.  
We are not who you say we are.  
We will not perform to your expectations.  
We will do what needs to be done, but we will be who we be. 
We are Love, ergo we do not require courage to love ourselves. 
It shouldn’t require courage for others to love Black Women. 
We are humans with human needs, Women with human desires. 
We, too, want to be loved, held, cherished, respected and honored. 
We desire to be accepted as fully as we accept others; 
Invited into spaces so hospitable we forget the hostility of the world; 
Spoken to with a gentle understanding that elicits the same kind response. 
We gleefully pour all of ourselves into everyone connected to us 
Even when they feed us nothing in return 
We, too need to be poured into. 
We, too, desire to bask in the radiance of another’s glory 
To be bathed in joy, peace and tranquility 
To rest without anxiety and wake without urgency 
We don’t need this grace from everyone 
Nor do we expect a societal shift out of gratitude for services rendered 
But for our men… 
It shouldn’t take courage to be a man of character, substance, integrity, conviction and discernment 
A man with enough strength to support a leaning respite.
A man who follows his heart and spirit instead of social norms and biases, 
But alas here we are praying for courage to exist, to relate, to be who we are. 
It shouldn’t take courage to live well in this realm,
But alas, here I am alone and unwanted in a world unable to eliminate my joy, exploring life with an unmitigated gall derived from loving myself.

LaShawnda Jones