Chatter

Falsely accused. Arrested. Not given a fair trial. Beaten. Condemned. Executed. This echoes too many stories of black people in this country. It echoes the story of a man who died on calvary over 2000 years ago. We have a collective history of violence. Our black bodies have been beaten and bruised since our arrival in this country. We have endured hardships and deliberate experimentation. We have been ostracized and sterilized. We have been sold promises of an unrealized American Dream. How many bodies must be stacked up in this nightmare on our street? So. We wake up and take to the streets in protest only to attest to rubber bullets fired in our direction. Tear gas choking us out. We can't breathe. You're on our necks like nooses from Southern trees. We will never have enough degrees cause we've never been given room...from the bottom decks of slave ships to concrete jungles in the sky to boardrooms. We've been groomed to grow roses in concrete. We learned to survive in gentrified neighborhoods that used to be our Black Wall Street. Everything we have...has been appropriated. We've always been on the frontlines. We were the calvary, infantry, and the air force. We understand excessive force oh too well. We've been hunted in Georgia since Antebellum days. We've nursed your babies and raised products of rape. Our blood turned Georgia clay Red. America has always redlined us with red tape. Outlined our bodies with chalk then gawk at us when we say black lives matter as if another name isn't added to the list from police radio chatter.

Be Phenomenal

There are two Maya Angelou poems that stick out from my chidhood, "And Still I Rise" and "Phenomenal Woman." I know that when I read those words, I believed her. I knew the "Pulse of the Morning," and why the caged bird sings. Maya's words made me think that I could be more than my circumstances. She made me love my big lips. She made me celebrate my queendom, I had yet to discover. She taught me that I was a phenom. Sometimes, we need to be reminded that we are phenomenal. We are wives. We are mothers. We are teachers. We are friends. We are encouragers. We are nurturers. We are phenomenal women. Fix your crown, sis! Be phenomenal!

Emerge

Caterpillars in New Orleans sting. I remember oak trees lined with foil. It was thought that caterpillars originate from the ground and crawl up into the trees. The foil was meant to stop infestation of the trees. Not true, actually. My favorite part of Spring is metamorphosis. Dead trees spring back to life. Flowers bloom and butterflies emerge. I've always admired the beauty of butterflies. They are able to completely transform themselves from caterpillars to butterflies. Many of us have that same transformative power. We have the ability to emerge from chrysalis' of doubt and insecurity. We have the ability to emerge from failure and heartache. We have the ability to emerge into the beautiful beings we were meant to be. Emerge and Fly, Butterfly!

Delight

"A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom."-Robert Frost

I am a poet at heart. Words are my personal delight. For some, delight comes in the form of cupcakes or ice cream. It may be a Sunday Funday or just watching some good old fashioned football. Whatever makes you happy, make sure you take the time to enjoy it. Make someone laugh. Relish in their laughter. Enjoy all of life's delights.  

Contribution

I sat in church yesterday and listened to the guest speaker, Sam Collier say, "there's a difference between a moment and a movement." He spoke about the conversion of Paul being a moment that led to a movement. I began to think about all the moments in my life that could have led to a movement. I thought about the moments when fear and doubt paralyzed me. Then, I thought about all the times I moved. I thought about all the times I finished. I finished starting the business. I threw that show. I wrote those books. I sold those t-shirts. I made those cards. I wrote those poems. Those are my contributions. Those are my movements. It's easy to focus on what you didn't do, but what have you finished? What did you accomplish? What's your contribution? Maybe it's that little boy or little girl you are raising. Maybe it's that overtime you are putting in at your job. Maybe it's those ideas that are keeping you up at night. Whatever it is, you have something the world needs.