This Is My Body

There are two mirrors in my home And too many days go by in a row When I avoid them both I am my own worst trigger I am my very best cheerleader Loving myself is acknowledging There are times I am not loving myself There are times I stand in the glory Of the kindness of my heart The well of my art Steady of my dedication To justice and freedom for all The curve and soft of my frame Reach of my fingers And there are times I long for winter To hide my body Under colorful clothes I wear layers to cover The poke of my stomach The dead of my fish Spread of my thighs Pollution in my air Fluffy of my face My hips The starvation of my children The discard of my elders I'm Black and I'm proud I'm Black and I'm proud My country tis of thee Sweet land of liberty I shout my mantras And cover myself With all this fabric Under all this smog With all these propositions Blinged in all these Stripes and stars In hopes that you will be fooled By my fancy politics Into loving me too This is my body Take Eat This is my body This is my mind to make up My vote to cast My right to choose Don't stand in my way With your magic wand words To guilt me out of my grief My doubt This is my body Hung Stolen Burned Sold My body that I have worked into frenzy Fire Spin Worry Over what you think They keep taking my children Killing my babies My Trayvon My Marco My Latasha My Hadiya Kimani Gray Sixteen years old Flatbush Shot down by police This is my body I love my arms And deport my Mexicans Paint my toes And cut off my homosexuals I dye my hair And rape my women I work out my abs And imprison my men This is my body This bread This red Do this in remembrance of me