Just Because: 'litany'

Mahogany L. Browne

 " 'litany' was written," writes poet Mahogany L. Browne in what is the best possible introduction to this poem, "after the anniversary of 'I Wish I Knew How It Felt To Be Free,' made famous by Nina Simone. And I sat with what that meant, years later—when I am still wishing for a certain type of freedom. To think of the time passing but of senseless deaths of black and brown bodies remaining. The poem was a mulling of all that has changed and all that has not. Injustice has not changed. Poverty has not changed. The idea that I am writing from poem to check to mouth/house is no coincidence. And the building on my corner was most certainly burned to the ground, leaving folks homeless. Within two weeks there was talk of building condos. And my neighbors and I, free to watch, stood on the opposite corner of the destroyed building as contractors stomped in and out of the remains. Someone smiled loudly about the 'new multimillion-dollar building plans.' And it didn't feel like freedom at all." from poem-a-day:

I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me
—Nina Simone

today i am a black woman in america
& i am singing a melody ridden lullaby
it sounds like:
     the gentrification of a brooklyn stoop
     the rent raised three times my wages
     the bodega and laundromat burned down on the corner
     the people on the corner
          each lock & key of their chromosomes
          a note of ash & inquiry on their tongues

today i am a black woman in a hopeless state
i will apply for financial aid and food stamps
     with the same mouth i spit poems from
i will ask the angels of a creative god to lessen
     the blows
& i will beg forgiveness when i curse
     the rising sun

today, i am a black woman in a body of coal
i am always burning and no one knows my name
i am a nameless fury, i am a blues scratched from

the throat of ms. nina—i am always angry
i am always a bumble hive of hello
i love like this too loudly, my neighbors
think i am an unforgiving bitter
     sometimes, i think my neighbors are right
     most times i think my neighbors are nosey

today, i am a cold country, a storm
brewing, a heat wave of a woman wearing
red pumps to the funeral of my ex-lover's

today, i am a woman, a brown and black &
brew woman dreaming of freedom

today, i am a mother, & my country is burning
     and i forgot how to flee
from such a flamboyant backdraft
          —i'm too in awe of how beautiful i look
     on fire

Browne recites her take on black girl magic on PBS's Brief But Spectacular (video, transcript): http://www.pbs.org/newshour/brief/172844/mahogany-l-browne