Harriet - Audre Lorde

[highlyeccentric]

Harriet there was always somebody calling us crazy
or mean or stuck-up or evil
or black
and we were
nappy girls quick as cuttlefish
scurrying for cover
trying to speak trying to speak
trying to speak
the pain in each others moths
until we learned
on the edge of a lash
or a tongue
on the edge of the others' betrayal
that respect
meant keeping our distance
in silence
averting our eyes
from each other's face in the street
from the beautiful dark mouth
and cautious familiar eyes
passing alone.

I remember you Harriet
before we were broken apart
we dreamed the crossed swords
of warnor queens
while we avoided each other's eyes
and we learned to know lonely
as the earth learns to know dead
Harriet Harriet
waht name shall we call our selves now
our mother is gone?