i’m a southern girl i can’t help it.

black too. means my bones

are sad & rotting

in a field full of sunflowers. 

born in Virginia

raised in North Carolina,

my body is full of love & racked

with oppression. i can taste

it in my mouth, it rolls between my

teeth, airy a hotbreath i can’t shake or

rinse from me. a history lives in my bones 

that proceeds their creation & i don’t know

how to stomach it.