Praylude

[Interlude: JaelSpeaks]

Whether in nights too dark to remember

Or in days too bright to see

I search for God, unafraid of finding myself

Yet for some reason I cried when I looked in the mirror

And found the truth to be inside of me

I did not believe she was me

But I always knew somewhere she existed

I guess I could not fathom the idea of my broken pieces creating such an existence

I looked for myself in them

I looked for myself in you

I looked for myself in love and for so long

I did not believe the value of my burning bush

Did not believe in my God

Did not sit in my temple of praise

The idea of finding myself anywhere but here

I've learned to love in my own language

To tell the truth freely

To see myself as beautiful

My life is beautiful and I know

That soon I will not cry

Soon I will be dipped in milk and honey

Soon I will not have to wait for you to save me

But I will save me

Because the heart of a woman is like the singing coming off the drums

It's neo-soul and soft magic

Love poems and wild beauty

Fervent and churchless

Yet altogether we are God's psalms today

We must shake loose our mask

Like the heart of a comet

And not let this prayer become helium in our hands

We must not flinch or fold or move when niggas come to us with the smoke

We must remember that we are the fire

That this poem the flame, this body a living sacrifice

Holy, but filled with grace

Worthy as the apple in all of their eyes

And it is this prayer that we must do in remembrance of me today

I looked in the mirror today

I want you to look in the mirror today

I want you to look in the mirror

And I want you to praise God