Tsunami Rising

In the balance of the human biology, all bodies are created equal Everybody exactly seventy precent water Regardless of race, religion, gender, sex, sexual orientation We all die after seven days without drink But the idiots obsessed with category have decided That a double-X chromosome designates me subordinate to thosе with an X and a Y Intersect those two X's with thе face of my blackness And my existence is coded as dangerous, hostile A direct threat to the endurance of the white patriarchy White men have spent centuries perfecting appropriation Taking what they want when they want The gold they found in Africa was not enough So they packed our bodies, human bodies Head to toe submerged in a swamp of our own urine and feces They dragged us across violent waters, drowning our memories Out histories fading to fractured stories of darkskin women Washing blankets in rivers we have never seen Five hundred years later Most black people in the diaspora have only dreamt of the waters of the east Smaller than the ones that brought us here Kinder than the water in which many of us drowned our young Rather than let them live in captivitiy at the mercy of those white men And there sons, and there grandsons, and there grandsons' sons For centuries the lineage of whiteness have made sport Of cutting open the flesh of women of color, tearing our skin with whips Using all man of doctrines and dicks to forcefully enter out bodies Our very minds, splitting our bellies, ripping out what they desire After that, many of us had to become one-dimensional Unable to display all of us we had to become on thing or the other Spinster or mother, virgin or victim, damsel or whore We were made to choose, lose some so we can keep some Most of us swallowed the multitude of sorrows Bartering silence for safety we learned to lie still in the putrid water We decided to mark death with sleep Most of us let go completely slipping away into the sunken place Others jumped and drowned overboard, never to be seen again Others crawled through the sewage and built cities in other countries In Brooklyn on the planet of Brooklyn I spend my nights Reading tales of Nubians bathing naked in the Nile Kushite queens equal to kings, all of them praying to Isis The most powerful goddess among gods, mother of all the rulers If I were her, I would use my might to smite Every motherfucker whoever looked at a little girl with lust in his flesh I would exact vengeance on behalf of every black women Who has disproportionately borne the weight of sexual violence Everyone has turned a blind eye to her Silently mouthing, "Me too, me too, me too," for centuries For centuries rape was a word we only whispered in private Then the richest whitest women in America began to say, "Me too," too Never mind that this whole 'Me Too movement' Was born from the brilliance of a Black women's word that inspired a wildfire of telling That telling has pulled the conversation about sexual violation From the shadows shoved it on to primetime TV Twelve years later, black women are still missing from the public dialogue We are so tired of being slaved to the invisible, we are not made of stone Black women also carry the weight of these violations We have been here for centuries screaming, "Me too, me too!" Into our hands, into our flesh, into the black echo of silence Even as we seem unaffected, our sorrow sits inside our bellies, our very bones Even when we can a conjure the words to admit how much the memory of it hurts We are still saying 'Me too' 'Me too' even as we refuse to show you exactly where, or how, or when it hurts How we were torn open, we are only holding our tongue so our hearts do not explode We are exhausted form holding everything in And we are fast losing faith in the future we always believed would come For centuries we have endured the culture of rape and racism combined For centuries the world has stood silent While black women were beaten and bullied by black men, and white men, and white women For centuries anyone who wanted to hit something or own someone They could decide we were it, tag without consequence Anyone could tag the black women, tag the dark girl, tag the universal punching bag But this crazy, mad, gaggle of global brown witches and hags Are done braiding beads of silent acceptance Women everywhere are rising like an angry tide Our collective rivers are full up of the tears of all the women All of us who are sick and tired of weeping, we are now roaring like an ocean Come back to take back what was carried away by the brutality of men Without my permission, touch me one more motherfucking time and see what happens this time Your apologies will no longer shield you from retribution Every act of breaking and entering Every unwanted fluid that was ever entered into our already full cup Will be made public, will be made public, will be made public And while we're here talking about confessions I might as well tell you I never gave a fuck that you never really liked me My mouth, my black mouth, black like my mother's ass Has not quite endured me to most, this is not a popularity contest What yuh hear mi seh, this is not a popularity contest I am only here to call black women to their own action And if you happen to be black, if you happen to wear the label of girl If you dare to live long enough to become a woman If you ever had to argue that you are no less deserving than your white counterpart If you have ever been inspired by the magic of a black women with thighs And asses that move mountains in their stride If you speak from the thick lip of your own truth If you have ever been called 'girl' like it was a dirty word Like it was an insult If you have ever been called a bitch, you step forward If you are itching to light a fucking bonfire In the house of the white patriacrchy come stand with us now If you want to be free like Harriet Tubman, weapon in hand, wading through unfriendly waters, her power compelling the freedom of even those who did not want to be free If you desire to be confrontational like Sojourner Truth If you wish to be audacious like Audrey Lord, antagonistic like Angela Davis Gangsta like Winnie Mandela, angry like Assata Shakur Come roar with us in the corner, sit beside us in schools Chant with us in church, vote with us and for us at the pole Travel with us in public, in the virtual, in the flesh, over these waters They have used against us as weapons across the lands of this rock we all call home Let us use our fire to crack this ground wide open With an uprising that they have never seen before That they will never see again That will never ever die down No more water, the fire next time No more water, the fire next time Wah mi seh? No more water, gimme di fire next time