Me, circa 1997
You
Can see the spark in her eyes when
She raises her hand and
When she writes her thoughts out
Or when she opens up a book
Meanwhile the others look
Down on her, the others think less
Of her because they’re shook
By this little Black girl armed
with a mind and a book
They
Don’t know what to do and
They don’t know what to say so
They cover their papers as she looks
The other way on test day because
they wanna say
She is copying their test knowing
Damn well she isn’t
Knowing damn well she knows
The answers
Knowing damn well the answer is
To never question the intellect of the
Precocious little kid
Because she is Black
While fighting what their parents taught them
About who is who and
What their parents taught them
About colors
She
Has it hard in high school
And so do her body, mind and spirit too
Too good for JV, too dark for AP and
Too “white” for the step team, so it seems
She
Doesn’t really know what all this means
Until she met this boy on her way to the bus
He approached her and he read in between the lines that
She was focused on something different
So he said “Listen.
If you keep your nose in them books like that you ain’t ever gonna get no man.”
Words meant to change her course and her plan did no such thing
She walked away and he was shook
By this little Black girl armed
With a mind and a book
She
Grew up and saw the spark
In another young girl’s eye and
She shed a tear and held in a cry because
It took her back to a time when
Being a little Black girl armed
With a mind and a book was
Revolutionary
Then she looked the girl in the eye again and it was a little scary because she
Realized the revolution is far from over for
This little precocious kid
Because she is Black
Dr. Kiara Shanay Lee 