Love Poem for Ntozake & Me (To the one and only Ntozake Shange)

Mariposa Fernández

Because of you I believe
In sisterhood
And soulful sunshine
Translated into song
Accidental genius
And rainbow rivers
Like the river that led me to you
Dreams come true
True love on wings of poetry
Roaring African savannah lions
Laying peacefully with the once hunted
Butterflies dancing gracefully with the once haunted

Because of you I believe
In the peace found in healing
The healing that can only be found
In experience translated into words
Translated into shared testimony
Translated into bonds of true connection

And because I am one of those colored girls
Who survived inescapable rites of passage
Which compelled me to consider suicide
To then by God’s mercy and grace
Discover the you in me
Who set her own self free
As I uncovered my own strength
In and on stages
Found salvation within the pages
Of a poet who survived to tell her story
And survived by telling it

Ntozake thank you
For the courageous example to
Find and act on the means
To reclaim the lost innocence
Of my Black Boricua Bronxeña girlhood
To create a beautiful mosaic of dreams
Shattered into a million fragmented pieces
To give birth to a new universe
Of purpose and conviction
A work of art in an open sky of inspiration
For all the Black and Brown girls like me
Born free
Born with the divine right to be
On this planet
To be loved
Valued and
Respected

Because of you
I am a poet
Who believes
Not in writing poems
On L shaped desks
With lakeside views
But in birthing poems
On tile floors
Back up against wooden doors

I am a poet who believes in creation
In writing poems
To inspire the next generation

I am a poet who believes in fire tears
To cleanse the soul
Cascade down to make you whole
And healing thunder laughter

And I thank God that
The rainbow was enuf
To birth a thunder goddess
Who birthed a rainbow
Who birthed Ntozake
Sunshine, moonlight and stardust
All over the place
As Muses sparkled honey kisses
On your beautiful baby girl face

Ntozake I love you

Pen to paper
Salsa dancin
Spanglish speakin
Soul seekin
Africana Diaspora
Diva

Ntozake I believe in you

You are the iridescent rainbow reflection
Constantly reminding me to believe in myself
You lowered rainbows into sewers saving
The lives of Black girls like me
Sashaying colorful headwraps
Hoop earrings, bangle bracelets
And sweet oil perfume

You sing survival
Into words
Into epics
Into rainbow colored
Broadway lights
Into the consciousness
Of our time
Our collective memory
Our collective survival

To know you is a blessing
To be hugged warmly
To look into your beautiful coffee eyes
That whisper
This poem
This poem is for you
These words
This time
This breath
Is for all the colored girls who considered suicide
But instead held their own candle light vigils
In marble notebooks
Who fought demons all night
Waiting for the arrival of first light
Who know that dawn is really a woman
The backdrop of a beautiful black sky
And a rainbow laying sexy on her side

Frost led me to you
And because of you Ntozake
I know that sometimes
The greatest of poems
Are birthed in the agony
Of headaches, stomach aches and heartache
Somewhere deep
Within the quiet peace
Of my soul

Poems that make me whole

Poems that set me free

Ntozake

Gracias.