For Women Who Are Difficult to Love

After Warsan Shire

i never wanted to be a horse
but my mother taught me early

our mothers teach us all what womanhood
has in the palm of its hand
to crush

ironically
i saw my femininity there

i saw my delicate
my soft
feathers that shed before they even knew
plumage

when you are the color
of someone else’s promise land,
milk and honey come in forms
that clog the arteries
yet, have no sweetness to give
and burn going down—

our mothers
with fingers meant for kneading
tongues meant for cutting
feed us practical
black girl sensibilities

and we grow
sometimes sharp
obese with wit
desperate
to shed these piranha teeth sets
between our ribs,
under our breasts

our mothers taught us how to eat
and how to acquiesce
to any kind of rough that calls
itself love. that is all.      so

i could give birth to whatever you want
if you file me away
sand me down
dip me in all the bleach and honey
you need

if you can find a way to call me
black          gentle      beautiful
woman

even if that means broodmare

i will be all you want
i will be satisfied

By Khalypso

Biography:

Khalypso is an 18 year old poet and actress born in Berkeley, CA and currently residing in Elk Grove. She is the Social Media Manager of Black Napkin Press and Poetry Editor of Cerurove Magazine as well as Culaccino Magazine. Her work centers primarily around charting the complicated existence of being colored and woman and alive—a metaphysical dilemma she wishes she could conquer and whose defeat she would whisper the secrets of into Ntozake Shange’s ear. Her work has been published in or is forthcoming in The Columbia Review, Crab Fat Magazine, Vending Machine Press, and Black Napkin Press. She will rep South Sac ’til her dying days and lives for black celebrities dragging the Kardashians for filth.