Black womxn, 
You night sky, 
You starless galaxy 
You 
stars for eyes. 
You 
are so full of empty 
of womb 
of creation 
You 
balance of holy fire 
You misunderstanding 
You 
misunderstood 
You 
so beautiful 
so lawless 
so… dark 
They branded you that, you know? 
“dark”, ”black”, “demon” 
You 
all reclamation 
all “yin”, “rebirth”, 
You 
beaten spine still straight 
you clawed teeth 
you rip them apart with rhetoric 
and discourse. 
You 
all community, 
all let’s talk this through 
all “What is ailing you, my love?” 
Them 
tired of hearing about how black you are, 
How straight your hair is not 
Wishing 
you’d just blend in 
Wishing you’d stop being all bold colored font 
You 
all redefining black as beautiful 
nappy as galaxy 
You all proud 
them all scared 
You not running 
them all shaking. 
You 
You 
You 
stand tall against the wind 
You recognize your skin as baobab tree 
You all deeply rooted
You 
wondering about your roots 
on a land that feels like sand 
You clinging onto the depths of empty 
You know empty 
You’ve claimed it 
made it friend 
You know what happens here, 
in a starless night, 
in a planet-less galaxy 
in the largest womb ever known. 
Here 
is where you have always 
created best 
Copyright © 2020 by Assétou Xango. This poem originally appeared as “A Letter to Black Femmes” on Medium. Used with permission of the author.