Apparently it's #BlackPoetryDay!
This one is dear to me. It was inspired by the author hearing someone judge a Black poet for having the audacity to write about something other than trauma. Often when events are focused on a person's identity, that's what's expected: Look! We gave you space! Now perform your pain so that we can feel good & helpful, & be entertained!
Eff that.
We'll only ever achieve full equity when no one is expected to perform their wounds.
#Poetry
https://poets.org/poem/how-can-black-people-write-about-flowers-time
i had no idea that was a thing. good grief, being forced to relive trauma in order to entertain others by making them feel virtuous for "caring". hypocrites.
I will give humanity one thing: We are nothing if not endlessly creative about the ways we find to hurt one another!
(But here's hoping that one day this creativity will more often be put to work uplifting one another instead. 🤞)
yes, the possibilities are everywhere, but are rarely brought into existence.
(I should also add that this poem is a bit of Rorschach test, because its closing imagery can be read two different ways depending on whether *you* can't help but see Black trauma even in a poem in which a Black person compares themself to a flower capable of being scattered to bits in a heartbeat. Tons of food for thought here about the cultural expectations we bring to the work we read.)