[un]Phenomenal Women

Talking Loud…saying nothing

There she was

…souped up face

…knock off threads

…chain store acrylics

Stuntin’ throw back shades

A huge façade

A common mirage

Created to catch you slippin’

Tripped up from surface beauty (shell shock),

you failed to see her insides brewing multiple pots of

…coping mechanisms

…negative self images

…defeat

…depression

…life lessons

Taught her worth was measured

by the girth of her hips

…the sway of her spine

…the size of her onion

Blessed with an abundance of pigmentation

Consistently underestimated…she’s even contemplated bleaching creams a time or three

She be talking loud and saying nothing

She be saying nothing just talking loud

She be proud…of the wrong things

The obvious Indian in her family that loosely coils her hair instead of kinks it

Yet she thinks it looks better under the latest lace-front the media encourages her to buy

And though she rocks perfect plaits beneath its weft, she’d never be brave enough to let her soul glow

She be proud…of the wrong things

Talking loud…about the wrong things

Negotiating food stamp favors to look good shaking what her momma gave her

Spittin’ venomous lyrics to soda-pop dealers for rides in pimped whips with 22 inch kicks

Be talking loud over bass rattling plastic covered windows

Be talking loud enough to echo through the boarded up homes consuming her hood

Be talking loud over sirens

…baby wails

…ringing cells

…even over the 80 year old lady that provides shelter for her baby’s daddy for free

But she just talking loud

…and saying nothing

D.J. Frazier

03.28.08