...and we danced

A few months ago I met someone and I was moved to write some poetry.  Until that day I hadn’t written anything for almost a year.  But there was something about this individual that moved the poet in me and so I wrote.  That individual, time and moment have all passed but the poem remained.  It was beautiful.  I took that beautiful poem and I tucked it away deeply in my Etched heart and went back to the journey I was on being glad that I had not detoured too far off my path.

With that poem tucked away I remained focused on Etched and with my eyes firmly fixed on the prized—Etched was not affected.  Thank God.  Now Etched, no longer a fledgling, is well on her way to being…whatever has been ordained for her/it to be.  I, being the vessel to bring her forth, have no control over this matter but even with that in mind I will do what I can to see that she stays on the path that is best for her.

My mind is now a bit freer and so not one to be idle I heard something that pricked at my poetic side.  I jotted the words down and a few moments ago, remembering them, I birthed them into the poem below.  It is still a work in progress; or it might just remain as it but either way, for now, I’m done.

It is my hope that it will be Etched in your heart as it is mine.

….and We Danced

Yesterday in your human form you…

Passed by me hurriedly, yet slowly

Your look, though fleeting

Shouted disgust because to you I was

Negro, nigger, Black, Colored…not like you

Your shouting silent look said

Inferior, ugly, too fat, too short, too tall, too thin

Breast too big, round, full...yet your hungry eyes

You couldn’t avert

As they journeyed from breast,

to belly

—the incubator and birthplace of nations

To my full round real woman hips

With their knowing sensual gait and sway

So you forced them away…stopped your heart from yearning

So you looked at my mouth

With its all telling lips and your eyes said...

Too thin, too fat, too wide, too thick

Yet your mind…wondered and wandered over, around and in…

So you cursed my nose

Said it was too broad, too wide

The strong ancestral flair—offended you

Made me inferior—in heart but your eyes…

Which only moments ago hungered

Said, “Why don’t you just….die!”

Free me of my guilt, my shame, my ignorance,

My insatiable hunger for you

And so

As you wished I died

Not to please you

But from knowledge birthed into my soul

I died

To you, your ignorance, bigotry and hate

Your hunger and your lust

But so then did you…not that second

Later/after

And then we met again….

Spirits

Stripped and free of the burden of flesh and color

Hate, ignorance and bigotry

Forgot what it used to be

And—you not recognizing mine as the one

You’d yearned for yet rejected

Because I was: Black, Negro, nigger, Colored…woman

Came to me rejoicing…spirit to spirit

...and we danced

Because while I was human

I was love, joy, peace, laughter…spirit with a forgiving soul

So…I welcomed you

…and we danced…

Annette I. Smith©

March 21, 2011