i am

I am a flowerpot sitting on the subway platform, dreaming of a southern sky
I am the southern sky
Bruised hues of blues and inner city, with an ocean front view
A holy ghost tongue possessed between the pews, sleepless in the twilight
A vision board invisible to eyesight
Loose hips humming under summer porch lights

I'm the djembe drum, rhythms spun between love drunk knees
I'm a runaway river, a sawed off shotgun creeping through the leaves
A kiss that quivers, a machete that bleeds
I'm the bananas on Josephine's skirt, a brown liquor flirt
The gardenia in Billy Holiday's hair, I'm a blues song in a cigarette's glare
A beaded Zulu hat on Makeba's head, Bob Marley's loc, a natty dread
I'm Marcus Garvey's last microphone

Ancient lady of grace Nefertiti's royal throne, I'm a poem
I'm a poem handwritten by La Lupe on the Malecón
A grassroots meeting of orishas in the basement of a brownstone
I'm a homegirl homegrown made of magic
A mermaid of memories swimming through tragic times

I'm the one that got away
I'm the love, I'm the love
I'm the love I never had
A cipher of butterfly wings
I'm a little girl who had big dreams, and prayers in my mother's purse
I'm the color of Saturday, bouncing off the walls
I drizzle in the wind like a sun shower shawl
I'm the final hour before the moon rests

I'm what a day looks like, honest and undressed
I'm la cascarilla on the door, windows and vents
A protector of realms, a protector of realms
I'm a Bwiti shaman who ascends, I'm the mirror
I am the mirror, I am the mirror, I'm the root and the end

I am, I am
I am not that I am
I am and we are
We, we, you and me
I am, I am because of you
We're here together, there's no me without you
I am, I said there's no me without you

We are, we, we, I, I, I
I am, I am, because we are, we are
I'm only possible because we are, you and me, we are
Ooh, I am, you made me possible
I am, ooh, I am
I am, I am because we are