Black Girl Smiling

Black girl smiling,

You are sun and moon and shine and rain. 

You are the smell of freshly baked pies on Sunday, the clean air of Monday.

You are loved, needed, and wanted from above – you are what I wish I had told you.

You are who you would love to be. 

Black girl smiling, 

I can imagine what you go through behind the scenes. You act and act and act until veils are torn, your truest self, revealed in form – broken, needy, longing for affection that seems foreign…The kind that holds and makes room for you in all your fullness. 

Black girl smiling, 

I’m sorry we had to shrink. 

We mistook ourselves for a smile that benefited. But when do we start caring about you? 

Black girl smiling, 

You deserve to hold open palms, 

Find rest in their arms. 

You deserve to be naive, longing, hurting, 

Scared, falling apart.

I wish they let you.

And I know they wish these things as well.