basically, I’m the shit. and more – By: Kristen Johnson

[ode to Nikki Giovanni’s “Ego Trippin”]

I am the beginning of a sentence 
and the period that ends it.

I am the love, you yearn for,

the comfort you seek. 

I am the jolt in your cup of caffeine

the quench to your thirst.

I am your gift,

and I am your curse

I am the rhythm laced in this single verse.

I am the subject and the verb

I am the herb that heals you

I am the flame at the top of the candle mourners kneel to.
I am the sunshine and the rain.

A cloud of promise or pain,

depending on how you move me.

I am half woman, half amazing,

I am one of the stars you see when gazing and I am 

blazing like the sahara, 

    I am the equator’s heat.
I am made of magic and fairy dust, 

and a little sugar for taste.

I’m the song and the ballot, the poem and the prose,

the thorny stem of a rose,

    don’t fuck with me.

I am the one brings men to their knees. 
You still don’t see? 

Baby, I am the warmth in the breeze

I am the honey carried by busy bumble bees,

I nourish the earth. 

I am survival.

My smile is staining 

like the ink on this scrap of paper,

Making my mark, my voice lingering in the air like vapor,

long after I am gone.
I am gone, 
Past the days of uncertainty, and questioning my existence

Past the moments spent watering down my name,

my sunbaked skin,

my fire burning within. 

here is my disclaimer,

here is my resume.

I am giving you a glimpse 

of what it might be like 

to walk beside me,

or hold me in your arms.
I am letting you know 

there is no speculation in my love,

no assumption. 

there is only certainty, only this

only yes, only free.

and I can guarantee, 
I am the one that you’ll miss.