Push

Push We learned to push love away through imitation We saw early our fathers and brothers Second us to their cars and gods Our tenacious rhythm of articulating Our womanist sensibilities Through Double Dutch chants and house play With candy cigarettes But why did we have to choose a struggle Be Black or be woman Like color and pussy don't connect Be gay or be Christian Like love and religion ain't the same F*ck nasty or be wife Like legs wrapped so squeezed around my man's waist Say I ain't his queen Hair nappy or bone straight Like how steady my comb stick Say whether I can fight a dog off my back What do you know about where our lives intersect Like we can't have faith and be afraid Like we can't forgive and remember how dirty you played Like we can't be devil afraid of our reflections And look into our eyes at the same time And know how magnificent we are