Blessed Black

or is it African American, Neosoul Love Jones finger snap negro,

or is it blessed my nigga rom around the way, or the new negro

sprung from the loins of Zora, Countee, Langston, Augusta, Billie n’ dem

Maybe fam, cuz, brotha, sista...

Legend says the Dutch

were trynna say from Niger

others blame Latin

All we know

is from the spray

from spittle of White mouths

like a Circean wand,

we be blesstized Black

Back in the day Birth of a Nation be our Gorgon, Black bodies

turned stone in America’s gaze. Dangerous, good for nothin, lazy...then who

the hell built all this? Here, the Obamas rival the Huxtables rivaled the

Jeffersons rivaled Good Times, movin on up uppity...careful, they can’t

believe we wanna be above our colah, venture beyon station of skin. Back

in the day, all that causin White rage: 1923 Rosewood, the 1919 Red Summer

that reigned three seasons, 1917 East St. Louis, 1906 Atlanta, 1834 Philly’s flying

horses, all the ways they say, We been doin this

Applying Ovid’s

Pythagorean theory:

Black bodies shapeshift

Shape and shift, neva bucks, neva wenches, nobody’s stud, notchya

mammy, pickaninny, jezebel, nobody’s wedding gift, nobody’s inheritance.

Defiled mulatto and yellow, tainted quadroon, octoroon, all shades

of names for massa-got-him-some. Simply put, rape-colored

Unbranded good natur’d, good temper’d

Unmade stout, nobody’s sturdy able, straight limb’d...

What we really sayin is, ‘These here, they reeealll valuable.’

Maybe be like Black hair, that natural, rice water grown fully weaned

from that whack creamy crack, that loosen the curl chemical, no more

faux natural. No more prayin to the God of Good Hair, good hair’s cancelled,

no nostrils filled with the sizzle of Blue Magic kissin hot combs, no more

askin to be like Myra, Ebony, Toya, Lisa, those girls, any girl with that

good hair. Maybe be like forgettin the word that rhymed with happy,

Droppin happy, droppin kinky, droppin coils altogetha. And for

the record, nobody's boxer braids, but once-coded-for-freedom-

corn-rows

Tignon laws told us

they been policin our bodies

legal shades n’ cadavers

became the mistake

meant for a sewin machine

turned test on dog’s fur

It was really Madam C.J. preachin

Let your crown glory be

...is it Black as in river-bed-Black, Bedouin Brown, Deep-Chocolate-Alek-Wek-Brown,

Sahara Brown, Red Bone as in fine as in Light Skin, Cinnamon, Sugar-

Cookie-Slightly-Burnt as in Caramel, Ginger Snap. Maybe Trail-of-Tears under-

tones like Rose Gold hue. Hershey’s Kiss, far, far away from plantation as in

massa-ain’t-touch-none-of-this. We-need-a-new-name-to-describe-that-kind, the

nothing-added-to-that-epidermis, nothing added to dare reflect any other color,

Offensively-uncategorized-Black

or is it Blaque, Blaq, POC,

is it BIPOC,

not colored but of some color

is it ?

Original names? We know nothin. We be the

Unnamed,

Nonamed

Renamed