as i am

touch not my tears

for they are from places

i don’t wish for another to travel.

gladly unravel me at my pace

i swear i’m willing

i’m not the string-you-along-for-a-good-time only type

i’m the brown sugar that gets you high.

i would like to fly above the mountain

follow my feathery friends to the sky

and relearn what love is for me.

for me first because God and Thy Universe

conspired specifically for my existence 

to be as humble as i am

to be as holy as i am

as emotional as i am

protect my soul as i am

to be as wild as i am

write these poems as i am

to be as black as i am.

i feel blessed and honored

to use these words and sanitize pain

fantasize of a good day to dance in the rain.

let the wetness cover me

hear the songs of praise deliver me

from wickedness and frail

so that i show up as alone as i am

as sensitive as i am

as willing to lay constraints to bed

and walk fervently in faith as i am…

i’d like to feel alive.