What It Takes To Be Free

A perspective on why I write
On how I try to understand life
To see the beauty in strife
The power in me and
What it takes to be free
On my pursuit of happiness
The purpose of my existence and
The purpose of my resistance
Towards your unjust ways of society
Your lower class, upper class, bourgeoise
See, I'm stuck in your system and
It costs too much to be free
But I'm guided by my mother's hand
My deeper rooted connections
To the motherland
To know the origins of my identity
Not what it means to you
But what it means to me
To be black, to be a woman
It happened to be my fate and
At times it's a burden
But our traits
They make us great and
They debate it cause
They can't relate to it, to
The power and to the history
To the victories made out to be
Mysteries, legends and myths
They deny us of our gifts and
Of our energy so heavenly
Forever ruled by your divisive decrees
You got me sat here wondering
What will it take for us to be free?
And in life I'm tryna see the good
I'm working hard
I'm tryna be the good
To surrender to that
Fun, numb, dumb love and
To protect my heart I look up above
To protect my spirit
I learn to know my limits
Accept it was always gonna happen
And I was never gonna know
I see the dangers to my peace
So we stay strangers
Now let me grow
You took my kindness for weakness
Exploited my sweetness till it turned sour
Yet still I stay empowered
I've clocked the fragility on your part
But God gave me strength on mine
To know when to let go and
Stop wasting my time, cause see
I'm never tryna fight for you cause
I could never see the light in you and
Some things I just can't share
So eventually, Imma have to learn to not care
Although, that's not in my nature
It's better to know now than later
Ignoring your pleas
You'll never hear no
Guarantees from me and that's
Just a part of what it takes to be free
I'm starting to see the life they've
Planned out for me
To work day and night
Cause nothing comes for free
It's the primary
The secondary
The tertiary
Destined for us since nursery
Hate that it's laid out for me
My life is already played out for me
To survive, you gotta have drive and
I mean to thrive and not live deprived
And yet on the flexing and the clout
I still have my doubts
Living rent free in my mind
Sometimes I feel confined and
God knows I hate to be defined
So I reject your categorization
The foundations of your nations
I'll stay a creative
In my own lane, in my own right
Cause that life isn't what I want for me
But maybe recognising that is
What it takes to be free
In my everyday life
I'm learning to say it how it is and
To speak my honest truth
Sometimes it is what it is and
That will just have to do
Embrace the joys that get you through
Cause there's times when it's hard to fight and
Times when it's even harder for me to write
But I'm working to free my mind and
To lay my thoughts bare cause
There's struggles in this life that
I know that we all share and
He will never give me more than I can bear
The activism, the blacktivism
It can weigh on a girl's shoulders
But it teaches her to be bolder
As she grows older
To embrace change
The only constant in life and
Passion that roars like fire
Fuelled by dreams and desires
It keeps you alive
It helps to find a release
Helps you to find your peace and
Protect it too
Stay grounded so nothing new can ever shake you
To be still and to
Trust in the stormy seas and
Maybe there I'll find
What it takes to be free