Racism
Feels like acid burning your skin
causing tears deep enough to swim in
Just for swimming
they drowned their all-white pools
Told us we didn’t belong
But you tell her all lives matter
You tell her
black girls worry about hair more than heritage
You tell her
Black Girl Magic is waterproof
You tell her everything but the truth.
Racism
is an ocean of impressionable young girls
swimming through brown bag tests
trying to find a part of themselves to be sure of
It’s a mother
being the anchor
to a society that disowns her
That shows her appreciation through appropriation
and thanks her by killing her in front of her five-year old son
Strength
is being forced to swim upstream
for the right to dream the same way others expect to
It’s breaking records in order to be loved as other demand to be
It’s going lap after lap
without rest
with the pain
without respect
with the cries
without ovations
Still, she moves
Forward
Further
Faster
Navigating rough waters because she’s not built for failure
She endures
Remembering those who came before her
Pushing forward with each stroke
Kicking down doors as water betwixt her feet
Suffering onward
Until her golden dreams are reality
