Read Online salt. by nayyirah waheed - Free Book Online Page B

who they look like. me. to lose love that way. to have to watch them be opened like that. all the way down to their mouths. time will never know my skin. wild with everything and nothing but them. i sang into their blood. each and every one of them have my voices in their bones. they will come home. i know they will come home. the whole sky had to hold me when the world came to eat my children. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. that fear. that pain. wake up my loves. into me. i will come to you every night. every single night. because you do not understand your nose. or your feet. or the boats in your eyes. you do not remember me. and you suffer. you suffer. you suffer. you suffer. you suffer. you suffer. you suffer. you suffer. swept with banzo. swept with banzo. swept with banzo. you suffer. you hate yourself. you hate me. this is death for a mother. how many deaths. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. i am your mother. remember me. remember me. remember me. my hands in your heart. i will not let you go. i will find you. worlds away from me. i am your beauty. i am you. no matter how much bleach you must drink. every night i will come into you and repair. relove. undo everything that is not me. i memorized you. i will walk over all waters to come and get you. bring you back to me. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do notknow. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know. they do not know i put salt in each one of your skin. each and every one of your skins. they do not know that salt preserves not only fruit. but children. you will remember. you will remember. you will remember. you will remember. you will remember. you will remember. you will remember. you will remember. you will remember. you see. my love. you see how your body is beginning to slow glow with stars. you are remembering. you are mine. you have never been anything else.
    –– africa's lament

these are not tears.
    this is the sea.
    –– tides

never
    trust anyone
    who says
    they do not see color.
    this means
    to them
    you are invisible.
    –– is

when i am afraid to speak
    is when i speak.
    that is when it is most important.
    –– the freedom in fear

what i never
    learned
    from my mother
    was that
    just because someone desires you.
    does
    not mean they value you.
    desire is the kind of thing that
    eats you
    and
    leaves you starving.
    –– the color of low self esteem

being in love with my people
    does
    not mean i hate others.
    how ridiculous is that.
    –– self

i am relieved.
    when
    i see the feminine presence
    in a man’s eyes.
    it means
    he is a peace
    i do not
    have
    to
    bring to him.
    –– ease

apologize to your body.
    maybe
    that’s where the healing begins.
    –– starting

the most
    gorgeous thing
    on
    a human being.
    vulnerability.
    –– want

put
    some salt in that honey.
    warm it up.
    heal.
    –– stove

a black woman
    can write of
    loneliness.
    or
    love
    or softness.
    or the moon.
    you may try valiantly
    to cripple her
    but she will still grow flowers in her flesh.
    –– a genocide of flowers

you blush like an ocean in love.
    wild with blueness.
    –– yemanja

i have always been the woman of my dreams.

open
    your eyes.
    even if
    the
    sun wants them.
    –– see

audre wrote
    of
    the
    ‘secret poetry.’
    we all know
    this
    poetry.
    lining our arms.
    rusting our teeth.
    walking through our hair.
    feeding
    our wild stomach.
    soothing
    our
    mouth