i enter through the back door 
of your love for me and so
i have to leave earlier 
to make the bus 
to make the train
to make the stoplight to you
is it a joke?
is all that waste? 
i find it hard to believe 
but i see i need to let it
be what it is
what will be will be
always loving 
always will be 
my apology

is it better to walk off the pain
or complain? i have found my answer
incomplete and washed out 
by the rains and storms to come 
the horizon is red with possibility 
every ounce of thought you put
toward tearing this thing down 
once and for all will be worth it
despite the venom you must imbibe
from time to time - well clearly 
must sweat it out! and try again
and sweat it out and try again 

(1982) Audre Lorde, “Learning from the 60s” •
— Read on www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1982-audre-lorde-learning-60s/

i go down the rabbit road 
to visit my friends

i 
 go 
      down 
                 rabbit
                             road

every day makes it harder 
to support this machine; understand?
every day makes it harder
to go to school; understand?
every day makes it harder
to BREATHE; get me?
hear me clearly 
every day makes it harder 
to live

“Women were in the forefront of the movement for national liberation in Ghana, then known as the Gold Coast prior to 1957. The early efforts of Nkrumah sought the full participation of women in the initial phases of organizing with the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and the Committee on Youth Organization (CYO).”

https://www.pambazuka.org/gender-minorities/pan-africanism-women%E2%80%99s-emancipation-and-meaning-socialist-development

i don’t need you
to feel at home
in this body
i need me to fill 
a home in this
body is like
my only home
i ever knew
changed so 
much grew
into the 
power of 
LUV