To a Dark Girl
I love you for your browness
And the rounded darkness of your breast.
I love you for the breaking sadness in your voice
And the shadows where your wayward eye-lids rest.
Something of old forgotten queens
Lurks in the lithe abandon of your walk,
And something of the shackled slave
Sobs in the rhythm of your talk.
Oh, little brown girl
Keep all you have of queenliness,
Forgetting that you once a slave,
And let your full lips laugh at Fate!
Gwendolyn B. Bennett (1902-1981)
Keep all you have of queenliness… and let your full lips laugh at Fate!
Peace,
Tenthltr2u