THE WOMAN I'VE COME TO BE

There's a young girl who marvels at The woman I've come to be.

When I was young no one could see What she could see in me.

See the woman I've come to be.

I smile when I see her peeking through my eyes

The girl I remember now looking at me

She seems so wise

Watching the woman I've come to be

She's anxious when I move too slow

She wants me to go to places she's seen before.

Seen them at night in her dreams, long ago

She wants me to be free and to soar.

Free to be the woman I've come to be

I speak to her I call her name I introduce myself

I want her to love the woman I've come to be

Defining Myself

They gave me a white girls name To me it always sounded so plain Nothing one would remember When I sign it, I give it some flare When I say it, I say it so one will remember

Defining Myself 2

They are building the new church next door My friends and I watch while we make mud pies We'll have to go inside soon as not to get too dark I'm excited about the church It's the first thing I've ever seen built from the ground up.The walls hold everything from the smell of hymnals and perfume to the sounds of clapping hands and tambourines. The fat lady sure can sing! Oh, the hats and the pearls! The women with soft skin! My family eventually moves I'm much older now, but the church is still on the corner In the kitchen making pies for Easter--they taste like my mothers--I call her for the holiday All she can talk about is Jesus We hang up I finish my pie for after church tomorrow

ME, MYSELF & I

Who I am is not all I want to be, who I want to be a part of me dare not try to be, who I should be I search for the courage to be, who I used to be wouldn't recognize who I have come to be, who I will become I can't wait to be!

PRESS -N- CURL

Saturday was "hair day" The process was long and brutal Momma would wash our hair and let it air dry and by late Saturday afternoon she would press it out with the hot comb Oh, it was hot! She would put it on the stove let it heat up and pull out the royal crown hair grease. Believe me you sat still until she was done But the joy of wearing a bang and having "straight hair" was worth the pain I would go to bed wearing the pink sponge roller excited about having some of my hair down for Sunday morning And when I was older she would let me wear a bang in the front and some hanging down in the back.

Over the years I've worn weaves, wigs, braids, ponytails-- worn mine short and long and any style the lady at the salon could do to make me beautiful I have sat with my scalp on fire from chemicals for "straight hair". Now, it's short. And sometimes I wear a "wash and go" Air dried like I would Saturday and if I would have known then what I know n would have saved myself the torture. People have said, that's hot", "you look so sophisticated", "you look stunn

But thirty years ago on a Saturday afternoon sitting in kitchen underneath the heat of the comb it was just "nap

Us clay colored girls have come a long way