For You, I Have Chosen To Speak

"For those of us who live at the shoreline

standing upon the constant edges of decision

crucial and alone"...

I will speak constantly trembling with fear,

but I WILL SPEAK!

Sharing stories with you

about the tortuous episodes experienced

by My Black sisters-young and old.

Of course there have been others tortured and mutilated,

but it is Our time to say STOP!

Why must WE fight each other

when they want us to die alone?

I'm sorry My tunes did not match Your rhythms,

and that My tonality lacked Your urban swang,

but there was no reason for You to ask for My silence.

Simply because I am of a lighter pigment

does not mean We are not one in the same.

We must speak.

We must speak...

Together.

They constantly rebuke Our struggle and attempt to redefine Herstory

when they are written all over Our faces.

Tears that won't bother to dry.

Wrinkles of worry carved into Our melanin-drowned skin.

But they say We're just angry, no reason, just angry.

There are answers. We should clue them in.

they have transformed Us into to aggressors

attempting to question the oppression

We have been forced to endure.

When they look into their mirror's of life

there are images there waiting to be set free,

but when We look We are taken aback by the invisibility

of what it means to be:

Young, Black, and Female.

Sister's it is time to reflect upon Our misfortune

and capitalize on the Women We claim to be.

So, I have chosen to speak...

"For those of us who live at the shoreline

standing upon the constant edges of decision

crucial and alone."

Quoted words by Audre Lorde