Truth About Poetry. (Ongoing)

My fear of becoming a mother.

Black mother don't you hold that child of yours for too long, you gon' spoil him and he gon' grow spoiled.

And then there'll come a day where he'll walk outside your front door into a world that rejects him completely, 

and he might hang himself for feeling.

You got to love him at arms length, punch him in the chest occasionally, tell him he aint shit, that way he'll survive.

Sister don't you make that man of your's feel like no king, a day will come that he will discover that you are the only thing that he can rule, 

and he will curse and beat you for all of the things that have cursed and beat him , sometimes, 

sometimes love has a hard way of recycling, like birth, 

and sometimes, life comes at you wraped around your neck like an umbilicord, and that same life can end with a noose or a bullet.

But we're not in charge of life or death, only love. Father.

"Black father don't you love that little son of your's for too long it'll make him gay, and the world already sees you a less of a man as it is, you got to be tough in everything you do. Refer to even the slightest touch of skin as a pound.

Show the world that the most feminine thing about you is your mother, because you know she loved you sure even though she feared to love you too hard. mother."

Don't you let that little girl out of your sight she hanging around them toe headed boys, she gon' end up loose, or "queer".

And watch out for those fast tailed girls she been rolling with they'll teach her how to tuck herself out of every chance of marrying, they'll teach her to love herself to her head and grow the size of four asses.

and then , aint nobody gonna know what to do with her, she gon' feel like she don't need nobody, she'll end up stiff necked and big bellied.

and have a son

and raise him with another woman,

and they'll be so disappointed when the world shows them that the child was never theirs.

Our children are only here for the lynchpin.

JOYCE LEE.