I was around 12 when i first read for colored girls

almost a teenager

ntozake ‘her own things’ made words dance in my head that I didn’t quite understand yet

words like choreopoem and love

i’m not sure i have a good grip on either concept now, actually

i was 15 when i read the book again

almost ready to date

already making too much room for   Beau, Willie, and Brown

boys hell-bent on destroying all of our lives

i was 17 and outside St. Louis

almost grown

dead and dangling things everywhere

i found god(dess)among them

i am god(dess) among them.

and at the end of every rainbow is somebody

almost on the verge of seeing her beauty in full color

for the first time.

May the poet/prophetess find peace and rest on the other side of her rainbow.