Crème de Cassis by Aleisia Miller and Precious Tucker Zulu

Discourse around blackness in America
Often orbits around black pain
Our suffering is a sun of conversations
Time, after time, after time again

But I grow weary of repeating our plight
While never highlighting the beauty of us
So often forgotten in conversation
Is our perseverance and triumph

The power we possess
From the tightest curl on top of our head
To the toes that walk earth's bed
Why must I only share our struggle
When our blackness is so much more?

Wе're favored by the sun from thе moment we're created
With skin soft and sweet like a serenade
We could be as pale as marshmallows
Or as rich as basaltic rock of Nyiragongo
There's genie embedded in our skeletons
Why must I only retell our pain
When strength is the blue of our veins?

Potential comes natural to us
It's the oxygen coursing through our bloodstreams
Our hearts built from titanium, and our souls further precious than platinum
Our chords produce notes no other bird can sing
Why is black discourse always about precipitation?
While ignoring the sweet scent of petrichor after rain