30 DAYS OF JAYE-DAY 15: Altar Call

Normalize the Divinity of Black women

normalize the struts

the color and shape of

Lip, mouth and hip

normalize what it means to be Black.

Black, brown and honey-colored

in the color of walnut

and even the color of midnight sky–

normalize what it means

to speak when spoken to

and needed to–

Things which must be

changed, may only be

because of her presence: things seen and unseen

Normalize what it means

to have your swag be unstoppabl

and you’re code switch impeccable

but in a place by which

Black is clearly king

normalize space looking like you–

filled with people like you–

and the doors open for more people

like you and normalize

what it means to

turn the world upside down

And in to make it Black!

normalize what it means

to be in Melaninated skin

with hands up for worship

and praise break.

Change legacy,

Change stations and

to be on every station!

Normalize what it means

to be Black because

to be Black is to encompass

all things from

mathematical tools to

the greatest inventions to

the greatest notes from the

13 that are given

and the most dope phrases

any emcee could ever utter

No–

whiteness has no place here.

It does not have the strength.

It does not have the weight

it does not have the

swiftness of thought

to encompass all that Black contains!

We have been the beginning

and will be at the end

for our children are

seeds, our tears have been

rain and our range

has become ocean and storm

cleans a land of what no longer

needs to be there you say

we are ancestral

we are the

I am in the I am is within us.

–JBHarris, April 2021