Do not try to label her
She gets out of all your boxes
Smiling at your uneasiness
Inviting you to laugh at yourself
She won’t do it alone, so you go with her
Beautiful five foot something, dark curly hair,
She can make prison walls show their dimples
Stretching ocean waves flat across the face, a rocky shore
She’ll silence its mighty roar
Two flutters and tidal waves wash away nations worlds away
Her stare lowers sea levels around the earth
Phony suckers evaporate in her presence, and
Sunflowers bend backwards following her as she walks by my building
Daughter of hippies
Descendant of hustling immigrants
Mother of creation, she
Paints
A future
Outside the lines, confident strokes
She’s not worried about finding a man
As much as a reason
To keep the struggle in her back pocket
We all know what the guys are looking at
No need to spell it out on her bottom
The movement is in her genes,
Attractive activism swings from generation to generation
Marching through her blood like city streets
Up to the steps of her capital buildings
Where everyone can see
Where she gets it from,
Mother taught her how to raise children, not her own
For hours each day, she
Studies
Herself
A flexible temple, her body
Stretches almost as much as her mind
Both needing to shake it off, sometimes
The daily grind, can be difficult
But she is coffee
Already made, organic, smooth and strong
Do not fear her stubborn stains she only spills on those who don’t know how to hold themselves
Names? She goes by many
Do not try to label her
She gets out of all your boxes
Call her sunshine, her spirit touches you through intermediaries like the moon when she’s not around,
Many have tried, but no man can walk on her
Ground-ed like a lightening rod
She is not easily shocked
Electric sunshine butterfly woman
Sister transforms awkward to awesome when she enters the room
She turns strangers to family with her loving cocoon
Weaving a little more of what this world needs into the corners of every social fabric
Wearing love as an old tee shirt
Life in a necklace
Joy in her earrings
And justice as brass knuckles
She is not an easy woman, not your girly girl
Do not try to label her
She gets out of all your boxes
Running, she
Chases dreams back to where they came from and forces them to grow up
Developing old realities from young fantasies
She stays in the darkroom
Raising children, not her own
Out of the city chemicals
With increasing contrast
Between their present situation and their past
Always looking better
She, is light
Running faster than anything or anyone
Across the room
To give you a hug.
JBT 