Pure Thoughts
The Negro Woman
The Negro woman travels with a Quiet Pain
as her companion.
Whenever the daughter of the Ashanti and the Yoruba
triumphs it burns away
the memory of having been stripped by massa.
When the Negro woman arrived to
these alien lands to turn soil
was her only economic use.
But then Sufferer was made to suffer more
as she was encouraged to reproduce
so her Children's children could
feel the angry Monster's abuse.
Once highly revered in spiritual circles,
only to be looked down at by Jim Crows.
All the while she had to care
for her children-
the plantation changed the structure
of the Black family,
the father was taken away his leadership position;
so the woman had to take up the mantle.
As Season after Season came and went,
so did the surroundings change.
The Negro woman went from the indignity of the plantation,
to the spartan life of the shanty,
and now to the tiredness of the inner city.
But the Negro woman does not want your pity or mine.
An emphatic No! I say because
the victim works the 'mechanisms' to her advantage,
all the while facing sexism
from outside and within.
The negro woman's mind has gone full circle.
She is seeking to reclaim the Crown
that was never lost
but was hidden.
as her companion.
Whenever the daughter of the Ashanti and the Yoruba
triumphs it burns away
the memory of having been stripped by massa.
When the Negro woman arrived to
these alien lands to turn soil
was her only economic use.
But then Sufferer was made to suffer more
as she was encouraged to reproduce
so her Children's children could
feel the angry Monster's abuse.
Once highly revered in spiritual circles,
only to be looked down at by Jim Crows.
All the while she had to care
for her children-
the plantation changed the structure
of the Black family,
the father was taken away his leadership position;
so the woman had to take up the mantle.
As Season after Season came and went,
so did the surroundings change.
The Negro woman went from the indignity of the plantation,
to the spartan life of the shanty,
and now to the tiredness of the inner city.
But the Negro woman does not want your pity or mine.
An emphatic No! I say because
the victim works the 'mechanisms' to her advantage,
all the while facing sexism
from outside and within.
The negro woman's mind has gone full circle.
She is seeking to reclaim the Crown
that was never lost
but was hidden.
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The Negro Woman
The Negro Woman
