MS. WORLD
Hey, y’all.
I hope you’re well. For Day 15 of National Poetry Writing Month, the prompt is to:
Take a look at @StampsBot, and become inspired by the wide, wonderful, and sometimes wacky world of postage stamps.
And if you’re not on or able to access the @StampsBot account, fear not! You may find an inspiring stamp or two by perusing the online “International Philately” (say that three times fast) exhibit from the National Postal Museum.
This is the stamp I chose to write my poem about:
And here’s my poem:
MS. WORLD
By Farah Lawal Harris, 2024
I actually thought I had to earn love—
keep my brows arched and teeth white,
suck my lips too thin for fear that they’d be
too big, too Black for you.
I was such a fool.
I pretended to be neutral green
when I was incensed, tense
and ready to burn up all your shit
right before I exhale—
shout out to Ms. Angela Bassett.
You a whole square who stole
my first name and made it your own.
I’m such a catch that
you changed your middle and last
just to match.
Picture that!
Callin’ me wide just cuz you got a flat backside.
You just black and white
and I’m full color.
Baby, there will never be another!
Don’t dare try to stuff me in no envelope neither.
I’m so much bigger.
That scar you think you see on my left cheek
is not a birth mark—
it is a supreme work of art.
I am where your “world” starts.
