I am SaFire

   Birth from the Motherland
Intothe Motherland
I am SaFire
      Stolen from my mother
      I jumped from the boat
      swam back in chains.
      A girl abused
      I tore out my own wound
      to killthe master’s bastard.
      The man-child sucked at my breast
      The child- now master I poisoned with my spoon.
  
     Fought hard, watching them hang my men folk
     Fought hard whenthey rape me
     I took downthe men folk,
      buriedthem inthe ground,
      atethe bitter fruits pain and hurt and shame
     to bury deep despite it all

     so I might survive this hollow world alone
  
      Cooked, clean and washed
      for the white-man’s women that
   despised and disrespected  
   calling me
   Auntie and Mammy
      Like they had no wound
      that brought forth children
       I’ll be asked to rise from my pain
  
      I wouldn’t give up my seat
      and went to jail everyday, but I didn’t
      start a boycott or a revolution I had mouths to feed.
      Withstood the hose,the dogs
      the blows and it was my blood

   that ran red on the concrete like rain
       Marched through the streets, seat at counters
       Road on buses across this country for the

      freedom I was suppose to have
  
       Threw up a black fist to mark world peace
       kept my hair in its natural state,
  they called it kinky
   Held a large gun to defend my rights to do so
       and stood toe to toe with my men in the struggle
   while loving them just a hard
   Found my voice  in the rhyme of song
   Steeped in the beats of the motherland’s tongue
   I told my tell in stories
   Poems, pose, quilts and songs
  
  
    I’m called strong-well by the brothers
    outspoken by their counterparts
    Too fucking strong for all of their sensibilities
     But it’s me that hold both reins as
    Father provider and Mother nurture
   In this world gone insane with greed and corruption
  
     I’m not blond nor do I havethe skin of milk
     My eyes are too dark and having seen too much shit
      I have a voice that is loud
      That demands to be heard
    
     I’m a force to be reckon with
       to the powers that be
      I am a lover to all women, a jewel to men
       I am War and I am Peace
       I’m the Motherfucking Beast
I Am SaFire