February is "Black History Month."
A National month of Recognition, (at least for most American states). Recognition for the contributions and lives of Africa's descendants here in America, a tribute!
Here is mine.
"BROWN SKINNED WOMAN"
By Meetta Martin
I'm more than just a body,
Smooth brown skin, permanent beyond a tan.
Voluptuous breasts, pear shaped hips.
I offer more than stereotypical, fantasy sex.
I AM A BROWN SKINNED WOMAN!
Rich in culture, Proud of my heritage.
I embrace our traditions.
I can and have endured many things.
Some so unfairly heaped onto me.
I have an amazing, blessed, God given strength!
I boggle the worlds' mind, time after time.
I can't be enslaved and torn down too long.
My soul is gonna find a way
to be free.
My spirit is strong and will live on!
Somehow, some way... it will!
I AM A BROWN SKINNED WOMAN!
Mother of beautiful, brown skinned children,
teaching them how to succeed and survive,
even in the face of evil.
Teaching them to learn to wear their skin color, as a badge of honor.
It is a gift, NOT A SIN...to have their color of skin!
(Don't be fooled children, people pay THOUSANDS of dollars,
and spend many hours, sometimes with great pain,
to have darker skin! Like the skin you're born in!)
...Mothers
Loving those children with great passion, but taming those children
when they are wild, some of us...many of us caring,
Brown skinned women.
The ones that don't get applauded.
Raising our children,
many of us doing the best we can, keeping house and taking care of business,
with and without a man.
I have the distinguished honor of being
A BROWN SKINNED WOMAN!
Strong,
Intelligent, independent, beautiful, Exotic
REGAL!
Vibrant, funny,complex, lovable, sincere, AND
unforgettable!
I am a formidable being to be reckoned with.
I AM A BROWN SKINNED WOMAN!
People all over the world,
for centuries, revel in...
My style, the way I wear my hair, my form of expression.
The way I move, dance, walk!
The way I pray, sing, talk!
I cook a great meal.
I'm ingenious, totally creative!
My inventions improve and change the way the world operates.
First woman millionaire, created beautiful products with which you comb your hair.
On your washer, I put the ringer there!
Without the "proper education", I was denied,
I created the schematics for the torpedo dis-charger on your submarines.
I ran the underground railroad
that helped relocate our enslaved brothers and sisters.
I wasn't the only one, one of many,
but they hunted me as if I was.
Still...I never was caught!
Even with a bounty on my head, the highest bounty for a woman,
the highest bounty even for a man, at that time!
I NEVER WAS CAUGHT!
I found my way lead by the stars in the sky!
I AM A BROWN SKINNED WOMAN!
I sang songs of code
just to be able to pray, encourage, and bond with my people
in the days of old.
I am a MAGNIFICENT Creation!
I AM A BROWN SKINNED WOMAN!
Yes! Dear Reader,
I too am an African descended woman of Color!
MY name is MEETTA JEWELLE MARTIN!
You can't tell me my place in this world is low, for I am among a people who serve a God that "sits on high". When my Great, Great Grandmother, (Lula Mae's grand mother, I don't know her name, darn!)
and mothers like her, were working long hours, getting scorched by the sun, planting that tobacco, slopping them hogs, taking care of them Masa's chillin' and picking that cotton beside their children...they held on!
That cotton...
cutting up their arms, sticking even through their long sleeves, pricking fingers,
without mercy and no profit for them. They had no freedoms, no say so. They had no one, no government to protect them. They could be beaten, traded, sold, raped, maimed and killed.
Every culture had their own problems.
Still, it happened to mine!
It happened to my grannies and my grannies before them. Yet and still...
they held on!
Fending off them European men folks, unwanted affections, protecting their daughters...they held on!
While cruelties of bondage were heaped up on them, they held on.
While lies of "their place" in life, were drilled into them, they held on.
They Held on to truth about who God said they were...
A people he was going to use to break AND change the world!
A people of unusual giftings and talents.
A people of great strength and strong spirits.
These women BELIEVED, in these freedoms and promises no matter how long!
Even while watching their men lynched and their spirit beat out of them many of those women... held on!
Believing in that freedom, like the children of Israel.
No matter how long!
Many of them believed this for the generations they couldn't even touch yet!
For many of you, for me, they held on!
With precious cargo's of brown skinned babies on their backs, while performing whip driven labor...They held on!
THEY ARE THE REASON I AM HERE! I won't let them down!
Grandmother! All my mothers before me... I would want you to know me now,
to hold me, to teach and show me, but all I have is your memory...your legacy.
I promise you, I WON'T sit quiet!
I WILL keep PRAYING!
I WILL keep following the God (the great I am) & his son, The Christ, like you did.
I WILL keep speaking my heart!
I WIll keep lifting that unique voice of mine, that came through you!
I will continue to use that voice in encouragement of others, to uplift and
not tear down, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR SKIN SHADE!
Concern and love, tears down evil.
It educates and unites us through humanity!
I know Grandmothers! I know!
I will keep moving forward.
I will keep my virtue, once regained.
A Woman of knowledge, morals, conviction, forgiveness, passion and truth, I am..like you, grandmothers!
I love in my life. When I love, I love with every fiber of my being!
Heaping compassion on those who come to me needing it...A kind word, support in a hug, food for them and their kids, if I got to spare.
Mothers before me, I won't let you down!
I would want you to know me now, to teach me, to hold me, to scold me 'cause you would do it in love, to grow me.
'Granny', I miss you!
In loving memory of ...
Mrs. Lula Mae Martin, of South Carolina * 1892-1973
AND
Mrs. Mary Ola Webb, of Michigan 1918-1988...MY grannies and their mothers.
...AND TO ALL THE BROWN SKINNED WOMEN whose contributions were mentioned in this poem and more!
LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!
THANK YOU.
Meetta
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