What do you see when you see me?

An intelligent woman whose free?

A poet with a knack for self expression?

A woman with the right to just be?

What song do you hear from my sweet voice?

Do I sing a song of misery?

Do I sing a song so unfamiliar to you?

Do I sing only of what you want to see?

What do you feel when we’re face to face?

Is it fear that enters your mind?

Or yet, an image of a thug or disgust?

If it is, then why can’t you feel my kind?

Even with endless cruelty, my heart still beats.

I walk forward with my head held high.

Walk with a fist in the air that you see as racist.

But I just call it solidarity, self love, and self pride.

What is it that you see within this body?

And why can’t you just see me?