The Baldwin Experience
I am 40
Something Malcolm, Martin, & Medgar never got a chance to say
My existence is encapsulated in the unfinished works of their greatest purpose
I am Purpose
I am Light
But I am also Dark
Paralytic dreams of messages I can't decode
In languages I haven't mastered
In a voice I don't recognize
Heavy like Baldwin discovering he was the child that the house despised
I am Black
I am confidently unsure
Peacefully anxious
Indecisively certain
My existence shouldn't burden you
I am the calculated labyrinth to greatness hinged on the prayer of the last Black Cargo
I am the one the ancestors speak to daily
I am a lot of things
A hopeful cynic
A restless meditator
A confused intellect
I am many things
The love absent in your judgement
The security torn from your innocence
The calm perverted by your fears
I am most things
The guilt between the layers of your feminine exclusion
The breaths between your weaponized tear drops
The optimistic pessimist
The spontaneous over-thinker
The abused heroine
I am the silence that speaks through karmic altruism honoring the price for my Freedom
Mother of nature
Nurturer of nations
I am the Progression
the Power
the Promise
I am so many things
But
I Am Not Your Negro