Callous

Sometimes my skin is calloused
as ironic as it seems
this tough dermis
protects me
protects me from the demise
your words hope to inflict
on me

but the continued low level
friction has been a series
of fiction covered facts

that I told myself already
like I am Black
I am strong
I am poetry in motion
I can’t sing
I can’t dance
but I can paint a three
dimensional picture with my
vocabulary attached to my diction
hanging off my voice projected
I’m indifferent, unsympathetic
and even insensitive
to the pinpricks
the splinters
the stabbing of that dull knife
you call words of encouraging love
meant to cut and bleed my life

but the continued low level
friction has been a series
of fiction covered facts

that I told myself already
like I am beautiful
from the inside out
I am the mother I always
hoped to be
I am earth connected
but heaven descended
I can’t fly
or walk on water
but my words can
move mountains
I can’t explain it

but the continued low level
friction has been a series
of fiction covered facts

that I told myself already
like I am a Queen
from the beginning of the story
I will survive
and my heart will be hardened
just enough
to protect, provide and procure
the kingdom that has been set
up and aside for me
I shall endure
and in the end
all the evil spoken won’t matter
Sometimes my skin is calloused