Soliloquy

Do you see, as she stands before you
poised to begin her soliloquy?
You look at her as she speaks so eloquently.

You look at her, but do you see,
the Native American, White and African blood that flows through her veins,
and pours out onto the ocean of her beautiful dark skin?

You look at her but do you see the level of her education?
She has not quite yet graduated from the school of hard knocks, but she has absorbed enough of life's lessons into her head,
that it pours out of each follicle, each root, each curl of her dread.

You look at her but do you see?
The paths she has crossed, the routes she has walked, the roads she has run?
A story told only by the sensible shoes she wears, and the loving...yet, no nonsense looks she gives to the children she beared.

Do you see as she stands before you, poised to begin her soliloquy and she speaks so eloquently?

She stands before you, curves of a real woman. No mistaking her ancestry. Cornbread, hog maws and chitterlings. Cornbread, hog maws and chitterlings! Garbage...so they thought.

Do you see, a woman of resilience, like your great, great grandmothers, aunts, and cousins who toiled in the soil, long after the sun went down.

Your female ancestors who after a long day in the fields seasoned that "garbage" til it tasted so good, that the aromas, even now remind us of home.

Do you see as she stands before you, poised to begin her soliloquy, and she speaks so eloquently?

Do...you...see...me?