When a Black girl says she loves you,
That means the world is now in your hands.
With eyes and body,
She has given all of herself
To you in ways which can only
Be felt to be understood.
When a Black girl says she loves you,
She lays the world at your feet.
The treat of her, the sweetness of her
Is laid bare.
When a Black girl says she loves you, believe her.
She is already acquainted with the improbable,
Moves Heaven and Earth as marbles,
By firewalking daily,
Because there are giants to slay.
Impossible is her everyday.
She has crosses deserts of loneliness
Where love was, once was
And frequently died.
She has swum from depths of oceans
To be in the sight of love over
An ever dark horizon.
She has tarried in the sight
Of the divine,
Being both girl and woman,
Broken bridesmaid and ‘trippin’ baby mama,
Believing that love, too, was hers
To be found while rejoicing for others.
When a Black girl says she loves you,
She turns her back on the bitter women
Of her line that whisper to her wounds,
Or tell her to face what men are
And will never be.
She trusts what she sees and feels,
Not what she is bound to know.
When a Black girl says she loves you,
She wipes slates clean.
Her heart tells her head
That you, this, and now are different.
As different as any other before.
She makes space to make pristine
All you hold and house the you,
Now her, now she and you inside
All the us.
She makes you first, last and the always.
An epitaph to every failure is erected,
Believing you are the next time this time,
When she gets it right.
When A Black girl says she loves you,
Frailty makes her strong
Knowing she is caught and protected
In all you are
And the her which is now this us.
When a Black girl says she loves you,
That means the world is now in your hands.
But what world will you give back to her?
-JBHarris 3.1.2019
[image from awanbusu.blogspot.com]
