NOTES TO THE SUPER STRONG BLACK WOMAN

By Farah Lawal Harris, 2024

1.

i know you had to act like a woman

and think like a man when you were still a girl.

i know you had to shrink your bones

and turn curves into lines lest you tempt.

i know you had to lift sofas with your right arm

and stroke egos with the left,

i know you had to give and give

til there was barely a sip of juice left.

i know.

i know you like i know myself.

2.

why every time you try to save them

they turn you into their mama,

their auntie, or that mean bitch down the street?

heavy is the cape you carry.

save us instead.

please.

help the fibroids calcify and the cramps cease

without hysterectomies.

help us sleep.

3.

the truth is

“super” and “strong”

have become nothing words

like “nice” and “good” and “fine.”

it’s a blessing that

“Black” and “woman” are everything words,

deep and expansive as our DNA..

how does it feel to change your name?

does it lighten the cape?