Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday on the 15th. I just can't believe another year has gone by. The older I get, the more low key my birthdays become, i've just come to really appreciate the quiet moments in life. I like to look at my "one year older" self and think about what I know now that I didn't know then. I know now that I can never be perfect, I know that the only standard I need to live up to is one I set for myself. I've come to appreciate that having a handful of close loyal friends is far more important to me than surrounding myself with people who don't genuinely care about me. I know that it is always possible to start over. To fall and stand up, to fall and stand up again and again and again. I'm so so grateful for another year of being ALIVE and healthy. Cheers to that!

Was it not you that said I would amount to nothing?
That my nose was a little too wide
My lips a little too thick
So I should just stop talking
Yeah…
It was you who said that my
Loud talking
Sole stomping
Would get me nowhere
Now I see you standing there
Nose turned up, jaws locked tight
Trying to deny me of my light.
With that “oh no you didn’t” look in your eyes
Trying to hide your surprise
Didn’t I tell you I would rise?
You must’ve forgotten that my
“African-ness” mothered empires long before you took first breath
What you thought I would fall to my death
When you turned on me with stone cold eyes and said
NO!
No you cannot sit here, eat here
No your too black ass cannot live here.
What you didn’t know that on my
Too wide hips
I carry the strength of mothers
Who tended the earth, baked bread, kept house, herd cattle, went to battle
Screaming child on one hip, commanding respect with the other
Don’t you remember when?
With your too tight lips you proclaimed
My people unfit to live
We’ve got nothing more to give
Sapped out, sucked dry
No more tears to cry
How could you believe
That you could erase a land 7 million years rich in history?
It seems to me
That you must’ve thought her children
From Ras ben sakka to Cape agulhas
From Cape verde to Ras hafun
Would turn and run
No it’s our turn
We are a people of motherless children
Stolen resources
Starvation and suffering
But we are a people counting on relief
A people of hope beyond grief
And strength beyond belief