MY mum is a woman
An androgynous spirit
A force to be reckoned with
A tongue without limit

My mum is a black woman
Heaven’s love and Hell’s damn fire
SHE is not a woman who happened to me black
SHE’s the subject of every man’s desire

My mum is a black woman who speaks in broken English
Who’ll intoxicate you with her ebonics
Heritage curls into fist in her throat
Language so unapologetic it’s toxic

My mum’s daughter is a brown girl who speaks in perfect English
She is somebody and a nobody,
a restless body, after every body
a body that looks similar to her brother, a body who attempts to embody her mother

The youngest of three girls, is just a girl
A brown girl who speaks in English
almost perfect English, almost perfect daughter
The last attempt

Her mother is a strong body, a mothered body,
a gentle body, an unbothered body, ...
an empty body, a body containing a body
A threat