wear your smile like a comet. bright. distracting. let the kinks in your hair rally together. let them stand fiercely from every acre of your scalp. say your name as if someone has asked you for it for a second time. slow. remedial. answer to its correct pronunciation. let your mind wander into the science of other worlds. become mad-Black-scientist. let futurism ground your feet. let it sit rigid in the back you inherited from Black girls before you. melt into the halo of your own self. when asked who you look up to- allow it to be you. allow it to be your skin. allow it to be your resistance. allow it a Blackness. a dark- allow it depth. wake with the awareness that you have not fell victim to dying. you are not dying. the goosebumps rising against your skin are seeds. you are earth-ever-evolving-Black girl - you is earth. grow into everything you have never been told you could be. have an attitude- talk back. let your voice scream unruly- coarse- fragmented- displeasing to the ear. Black girl do not stop speaking. do not stop questioning. do not stop putting people in their place. do not let the quivering of your lips fall motionless. talk too much. let the surprise of your eloquence always stain the paleness of an expectation. let it always make things uncomfortable. let it have its own rhythm. a music- let it be the only thing you hear. Black girl, feel the cadence of your magic in the downbeat of your own breathe. do not stop breathing. when the world cuts into your skin- tries to convince you that you are the cause of your own bleeding- do not stop breathing. Black girl, breathe in this truth of yourself.
