A Slew of Poems Unrevised

Natural World

Came to this world
Unremembered
No one knowing me
Really
And
Not really knowing myself
Either
Came to this earth
Odd
and unmatched
Misplaced socks was I
First time here
In this new being
Meeting
A new being
Called mama
She stared at me
While my fresh eyes were
Clouded
by inner womb juice
Mama didn't know who I was before
And I had forgotten too

Growing tall I went though
But still confused
Who am I
I asked my mama
She says well your Mianna of Course
That's you
Pointing to the mirror
I stared at my face....
What is a me??
I don't really know
My eyes scanned the figure
Reflecting back
With curls and twist that sat on head
Kinda kinky
Kinda fine
Skin
Brown skin
not real brown
But not real light either
Still confused
As I got older surrounded by white peers
I asked myself ain't it enough to be black
But I was still confused
So I said no
And I put that flat iron straight to my hair
I wanted this mane...
to play gracefully with the wind
Like the little girls I used to play
With
Like
Joy
Sarah
Tiana
Even my mama
With the sliky perm
That made her hair glisten
Growing tall again I went
Though
This time
Noticing the features
On I
That would get me into the exotic club
Those feature that
Made people not know who I was
Or ask
Are you mixed?
They told me my eyes where oddly shaped...
Like a almond
Ohh and how I wore that out
Telling people I was Korean
On my dad's side
They told me I had good hair
That I couldn't be just black
And be this beautiful
And I was confused
So I thought that was true
Growing tall
But this time
Things had changed
With the 21st century
Natural hair movement
Early 2000's
New life
Of twist outs
Bantu knots
And big afro came to me
In the form of the once new being
Mama
When she transitioned
so did I
And

Finally we knew ourselves