Midnight and Melanin

A blessing for deep-thinking women of color

I will baptise you with my love and true admiration

I will carry you across the river without hesitation

You deserve my heart

You deserve this heart

You leave the island, I’ll stay

I’ll cut it out for you if you feel it would sustain you

I will bless your name

You are worthy, love

You deserve today

You deserve the sun

You hold the whole universe in your folds of ocean skin

Golden like your waves were made for sunset,

Your glowing waters were always defiant

A fire in disguise

You burn as you hold the whole world on your back

Without Atlas, and the joke is you knew this would happen

But who’s laughing?

I don’t mind taking the time to protect you from attack

Let my body be your shield on the battlefield

I’ve seen the wounded good in evil, I’ve seen the tension within people

I’ve seen your halo be a beacon

A blessing for the beautiful

I will leave loose gentle kisses where the broken skin won’t heal

Where the cracks are deep and real, where you can’t feel the skin falling from blazing blood

Because the pyromaniac in you leaves your beauty flourishing

But body and soul hurting, a certain asserting of who you are

Will bring about wonder yet also violence

In silence, I will pour perfumed oils over your aching feet

Take a seat

A blessing for the ancient brown angels in pain

Though there be no fame for the challenge you face,

There is a throne at the altar for you

And, no, you are not the sacrifice this time

We will not divide your mind from limb

Bake your body into five loaves to save the masses rolling in

You are not lamb, or lamppost lighting a streetside for the wandering

You are not a hostage here

You are a goddess, full of fear,

If your neck is sore from nodding, or slouching or sobbing or something

Let my folded hands soothe your sulking sorrow,

Curve beneath your skull to carry the weight of your thoughts

Don’t drift off

But, seraph, be calm,

Hold on

I know you’re strong

A blessing for the women who carry the baskets of lightning on their heads

And weave them too, who share enlightenment with all before they feed themselves

A blessing for the girls whose waking thoughts in believing in holding their own bodies have become a barrier and a catalyst for survival

A blessing for broken backs and escaping sight for age that that folded white braids try to pass on to children

A blessing

You are a blessing

I bring a dandelion blessing to you

You monarchs of the heavens

You overachieving magicians and saints

The distance between the light and the ground

Is a hard fall

Is a hefty price

You pay every second that speeds away

The distance between the light and the ground

Is an endless chase in a hall of mirrors

Why would you volunteer to save the unappreciating stranger?

You hold the whole universe in the folds of your ocean skin

Golden starlight I’m soaking in

I’m paper thin

Take this blessing

Take my blessing

Take me, attempting to bless you, please

Before I blow to the wind

A blessing for the aftermath of a dandelion

A blessing for the fate of our kin