Looking

I wanted
To write about
Black women
So I had to step back and look around
I was looking for my mother,
And her sister
And her mother
But they no longer close to me
I couldn’t talk to them
To find out the things that lay deep within them
So I traveled to the waves
Searching for a woman
To speak to me
The way my black mother would
When I found her
She was hidden in something called
History
I asked
Where are my black creatures?
Where are the women who I seek?
Where are my teachers?
History said to me
They walk among you
They talk to themselves
Some have given in
To a defeated battle
But some sit yonder
On the shores of islands waiting
To tell their tale
Of black women with only Pride and shame.