Anaya Brooks
B.E.T.
What is there not to love
Black Excellence Thrives
From the tips of our toes
To the tips of our hair
Which is in tune with nature
Our roots going nowhere but up
Reaching for the stars
And giving them their right name*
Our hair is so luscious
That it comes in many different forms
From curly
To coily
To kinky
Rocked in twists
Braids, locks, dreads,
Waves, puffs, buns and blow outs
Our skin is broad in color
Forming our own rainbows
After a day’s storm and gloom
Ranging from the color of the palm of your hand
To the rare and beautiful gold
To the sweet and delicious honey
To the wet and rich soil
All the way to as dark as the night
Where the plentiful and beautiful stars shine
Our body is a temple
Where it’s to be worshipped
And seen as that of a goddess
You think Kim K and Kylie were born like that
They are artificially what we are naturally
Wishing and racing to be genetically modified
So they can look and feel like us
Because black girls rock
Because black boys rock
Because black people rock
And they will see how beautiful we are*
And be ashamed
Black Excellence Thrives
*Lines borrowed from Danez Smith’s “Dear White America”
& Langston Hughes’s “I, Too”
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