royal blood

as a queen birthed in blackness

every breath i draw is an act of defiance

existing in a space that wants to strip the nap from my curls

take it and sell it for profit

yet they condemn me for thinking

i am worthy to carry this excellence

nefertiti's blood in these veins

ancient egyptian hieroglyphics leave this tongue

every time i fill my lungs

with ebony air

i expel the cry of a warrior

who's battle is far from over

resistance lingers on my lips

after being forced to taste

the toxic juice of whiteness

i spit it in the face of the woman who tells me

there’s no place here for a black girl

a never ending battle

digging my acrylics into the last pieces of my ancestors

untouched by judgemental eyes

as they try to gentrify the mother tongue

out of this sugar cane song that i sing

i speak with the power of every nubian goddess

who dared to challenge milk faced hatred

it is not aggression that you see seep out of my pores

instead it’s my recognition of the oppression spewing out of your mouth

which has transformed itself to oil

to repel your suppressed saliva that now adorns my face

it is not my own sadness you see in my eyes

but the tears trapped in the middle of the sea

from the enslaved who chose their own death

over the murder of their freedom

i do not need to be tamed

the lioness that roams the hollow cavity of my chest

exists to protect what used to be my heart

prowling the african plains with her head high

no one needs to tell the lion she is royalty