In the balance of the human biology

all bodies are created equal

Everybody exactly seventy precent water

Regardless of race, religion

gender, sex, sexual orientation

We all die after seven days without drink

But the idiots obsessed with category have decided

That a double-X chromosome designates me

subordinate to thosе with an X and a Y

Intersect those two X's with thе face of my blackness

And my existence is coded as dangerous, hostile

A direct threat to the endurance of the white patriarchy

White men have spent centuries perfecting appropriation

Taking what they want when they want

The gold they found in Africa was not enough

So they packed our bodies, human bodies

Head to toe submerged in a swamp of our own urine and feces

They dragged us across violent waters, drowning our memories

Out histories fading to fractured stories of darkskin women

Washing blankets in rivers we have never seen

Five hundred years later

Most black people in the diaspora have

only dreamt of the waters of the east

Smaller than the ones that brought us here

Kinder than the water in which many of us drowned our young

Rather than let them live in captivitiy

at the mercy of those white men

And there sons, and there grandsons

and there grandsons' sons

For centuries the lineage of whiteness have made sport

Of cutting open the flesh of women of color

tearing our skin with whips

Using all man of doctrines

and dicks to forcefully enter out bodies

Our very minds, splitting our bellies

ripping out what they desire

After that, many of us had to become one-dimensional

Unable to display all of us we had

to become on thing or the other

Spinster or mother, virgin or victim, damsel or whore

We were made to choose, lose some so we can keep some

Most of us swallowed the multitude of sorrows

Bartering silence for safety we learned

to lie still in the putrid water

We decided to mark death with sleep

Most of us let go completely

slipping away into the sunken place

Others jumped and drowned overboard, never to be seen again

Others crawled through the sewage

and built cities in other countries

In Brooklyn on the planet of Brooklyn I spend my nights

Reading tales of Nubians bathing naked in the Nile

Kushite queens equal to kings, all of them praying to Isis

The most powerful goddess among gods

mother of all the rulers

If I were her, I would use my might to smite

Every motherfucker whoever looked at

a little girl with lust in his flesh

I would exact vengeance on behalf of every black women

Who has disproportionately borne

the weight of sexual violence

Everyone has turned a blind eye to her

Silently mouthing, "Me too, me too, me too, " for centuries

For centuries rape was a word we only whispered in private

Then the richest whitest women in America began to say

"Me too, " too

Never mind that this whole 'Me Too movement'

Was born from the brilliance of a Black women's word

that inspired a wildfire of telling

That telling has pulled the

conversation about sexual violation

From the shadows shoved it on to primetime TV

Twelve years later

black women are still missing from the public dialogue

We are so tired of being slaved to the invisible

we are not made of stone

Black women also carry the weight of these violations

We have been here for centuries screaming

"Me too, me too! "

Into our hands, into our flesh

into the black echo of silence

Even as we seem unaffected

our sorrow sits inside our bellies, our very bones

Even when we can a conjure the words to

admit how much the memory of it hurts

We are still saying 'Me too'

'Me too' even as we refuse to show you exactly where

or how, or when it hurts

How we were torn open

we are only holding our tongue so our hearts do not explode

We are exhausted form holding everything in

And we are fast losing faith in the

future we always believed would come

For centuries we have endured the

culture of rape and racism combined

For centuries the world has stood silent

While black women were beaten and bullied by black men

and white men, and white women

For centuries anyone who wanted

to hit something or own someone

They could decide we were it, tag without consequence

Anyone could tag the black women

tag the dark girl, tag the universal punching bag

But this crazy, mad, gaggle of global brown witches and hags

Are done braiding beads of silent acceptance

Women everywhere are rising like an angry tide

Our collective rivers are full

up of the tears of all the women

All of us who are sick and tired of weeping

we are now roaring like an ocean

Come back to take back what was

carried away by the brutality of men

Without my permission

touch me one more motherfucking time

and see what happens this time

Your apologies will no longer shield you from retribution

Every act of breaking and entering

Every unwanted fluid that was ever

entered into our already full cup

Will be made public

will be made public, will be made public

And while we're here talking about confessions

I might as well tell you I never gave a fuck

that you never really liked me

My mouth, my black mouth, black like my mother's ass

Has not quite endured me to most

this is not a popularity contest

What yuh hear mi seh, this is not a popularity contest

I am only here to call black women to their own action

And if you happen to be black

if you happen to wear the label of girl

If you dare to live long enough to become a woman

If you ever had to argue that you are no

less deserving than your white counterpart

If you have ever been inspired by the

magic of a black women with thighs

And asses that move mountains in their stride

If you speak from the thick lip of your own truth

If you have ever been called 'girl' like it was a dirty word

Like it was an insult

If you have ever been called a bitch, you step forward

If you are itching to light a fucking bonfire

In the house of the white patriacrchy come stand with us now

If you want to be free like Harriet Tubman

weapon in hand, wading through unfriendly waters

her power compelling the freedom of

even those who did not want to be free

If you desire to be confrontational like Sojourner Truth

If you wish to be audacious like Audrey Lord

antagonistic like Angela Davis

Gangsta like Winnie Mandela, angry like Assata Shakur

Come roar with us in the corner, sit beside us in schools

Chant with us in church, vote with us and for us at the pole

Travel with us in public, in the virtual

in the flesh, over these waters

They have used against us as weapons across

the lands of this rock we all call home

Let us use our fire to crack this ground wide open

With an uprising that they have never seen before

That they will never see again

That will never ever die down

No more water, the fire next time

No more water, the fire next time

Wah mi seh? No more water, gimme di fire next time