instructions for black girls

i. 

move your body, black girl

swing those hips, black girl

shake your butt, black girl

you feel that music, black girl

you feel it deep in those bones, black girl? 

what does it make you want to do, black girl?

does it make you want to groove, black girl?

 do you feel them watching you, black girl?

eyes all over you, black girl

hands all over you, black girl

i think they want you, black girl

they want to have you, black girl 

he wants to devour you, black girl 

he’s gonna swallow you whole, black girl 

he’ll eat you skin and bones, black girl 

don’t let him have you, black girl 

she wants to be you, black girl 

she wants your soul, black girl 

she’s gonna wear your skin, black girl 

don’t let her be you, black girl 

move your body, black girl 

swing those hips, black girl 

shake your butt, black girl 

just keep dancing, black girl 

bend your knees, black girl 

crease your sneakers, black girl

fill out those jeans, black girl 

flip your hair over your shoulders, black girl 

smile with those thick lips, black girl 

keep listening to that music, black girl

don’t let them in, black girl 

just keep dancing, black girl

move that body, black girl 

don’t ever stop, black girl 

ii. 

i remember watching all the grown folk 

dancing at the family reunion 

close bodies and 

it’s hot but everyone 

is smiling 

they don’t know the world is 

ending and we’re the first to die

i wish i knew what it meant to 

dance through the suffering 

but i have always been 

an ugly-ugly child 

so no one pulls me in 

and nobody asks to dance with me 

it’s always the asking that matters the most 

i’m still at the cookout 

watching from the side 

silently begging for someone 

to pull me in and ask me 

to dance through the suffering 

because the world is ending 

and we’re the first to die 

the firing squad is ready 

they’ll bury us in the morning

i already know it 

but i’m still the ugly-ugly child 

waiting 

always waiting 

like some idiot.