Thrift - Original Poem
By Jasmine Green
I am donating all of my body parts to non black women
I am freely giving them away
There are of no use to me anymore
They are not damaged, they are slightly worn
But I can promise you they are worth more than gold
On the right frame
Don't be afraid
Take my blackest body parts
Take the parts where the skin looks like fertile earth
Take every milliliter of my melanin
Inject it among the masses so long as they still pass
Pluck every follicle of my wooly hair
Knit it into the scalps of women who want more but not "too much" volume
Peel away at my lips
Press them to the mouths of women for whom it will be sexy to sport lips like mine
Shave away every slice of thigh, butt, breast, hip
And sew them onto lighter bodies
Share my eyes among those who can turn pain into the art you'd buy
Gift my lungs to women who's loud voices filled with prideful breaths won't define them animalistic
Give my trachea to women who will never have to whisper out of the fear of scaring their coworkers and colleagues
Transplant my tongue to women who's attitudes are spicy and not savage
Rip away my pounding heart for the women who's passion doesn't have to be hidden for fear of looking angry
Take all parts of me
Grab every clay and sienna inch
In exchange, I only ask that you leave my neurons attached
Stick my sullen brain in a vat
So that when those parts get admiration
I can finally feel what love of them feels like
So that I will know it was never those physical traits but it was their vessel
My body is artwork hung in the wrong museum
Not wrong because the museum is wrong
But wrong because you think it is
It is not your preferred or premiere
It has never been the trend any year
It has always been the color to replace
What can be the new black if you never loved black in the first place?
No, I don't want it
I don't want these parts if they can only be admired through exception
Not the taboo, not the taste, not the "I don't usually do this", not the "I don't usually like ones like you", not the "you are my first", not the "you're different from the rest"
Just the acceptable
Just the accepted
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