how to get over ["be born: black..."]
be born: black
as ants on a chicken bone black
as Nina Simone and Mahalia’s moan black
as rock pile smile and resilience black
as resistance and rhythm and Sonny’s blues black
as no shoes and dirt floors black
as whore and Hottentot foxtrot Lindy Hop
and Watusi pussy and pyramids black
as darkness under your eyelids black
between your legs black
as dregs of rum sugarcane summer
plums holyghost hum black
as bruised throat fieldholla wading in the shallow black
as ocean river stream creek running black
transparent translucent transatlantic slanted
shanties planted in red clay black
as funky chickens and chitlins and kinfolk sold away black
as auction block and slop and hip-hop and rock and roll
and chop shop and cop cars and parole and overseer
patrols and one drop rules and pools of blood black
as beige and good hair and sounding white and light-skindeded
and my grandmamma is Cherokee, Iroquois, Choctaw black
as pit bulls and lockjaw and rage and hoodies black
eyes and black-eyed peas peasy heads and loose tracks black
as trees and noose and hounds let loose in the night black
as fist and fight Sojourner and Nat Turner and righteousness black
as fuck and not giving a fuck mud-stuck and quicksand
quick hand hustle thigh muscle and hurdle black
as cotton and tobacco and indigo black
as wind and bad weather and feather
and tar and snap beans in mason jars black
as nigga please and hallelujah black
asses and black strap molasses and turn your black
back on audiences black
as banjo and djembe and porch and stoop and spooks
sitting by the door black
as roaches in front of company and lawn jockeys
and latchkey kids and high bids and spades and shittalk black
as cakewalk and second line and black
magic and tap dance, lapdance and alla that ass black
as jazz and juke and juju and spirit
disguised as harmonica spit black
as cast-iron skillets and grits and watermelon seeds
flitting from lips black
as tambourines hitting cornbread hips black
batons splitting lips and Martin Luther King, Jr.
boulevards and downtown beatdowns black
sit-ins and come-ups and oops upside yo’ heads
and we shall overcomes and get down on it black
get into it black let’s get it on and get it
while the getting is good black
as white hoods and backwood revivals black
as survival and Trayvon and Tyrone and Josephus
and amen and Moses and Jesus and getting over
black—
Copyright Credit: T’ai Freedom Ford, "how to get over [pp. 42-44]" from how to get over. Copyright © 2017 by t’ai freedom ford. Reprinted by permission of Red Hen Press.
Source: how to get over (Red Hen Press, 2017)