Milk and Honey

Milk and Honey Poem Text

"the first boy that kissed me"

the first boy that kissed me

held my shoulders down

like the handlebars of

the first bicycle

he ever rode

i was five

he had the smell of

starvation on his lips

which he picked up from

his father feasting on his mother at 4 a.m.

he was the first boy

to teach me my body was

for giving to those that wanted

that I should feel anything

less than whole

and my god

did i feel as empty

as his mother at 4:25 a.m.

"you tell me to quiet down..."

you tell me to quiet down cause

my opinions make me less beautiful

but i was not made with a fire in my belly

so i could be put out

i was not made with a lightness on my tongue

so i could be easy to swallow

i was made heavy

half blade and half silk

difficult to forget

and not easy for the mind to follow

"-solo performance"

you move my hand

between my legs

and whisper

make those pretty little fingers dance for me

"did you think i was a city"

did you think i was a city

big enough for a weekend getaway?

i am the town surrounding it

the one you’ve never heard of

but always pass through

there are no neon lights here

no skyscrapers or statues

but there is thunder

for i make bridges tremble

i am not street meat i am homemade jam

thick enough to cut the sweetest

thing your lips will touch

i am not police sirens

i am the crackle of a fireplace

i’d burn you and you still

couldn’t take your eyes off me

cause i’d look so beautiful doing it

you’d blush

i am not a hotel room i am home

i am not the whiskey you want

i am the water you need

don’t come here with expectations

and try to make a vacation out of me

"-kaur / a woman of sikhi"

the name kaur

makes me a free woman

it removes the shackles that

try to bind me

uplifts me

to remind me i am equal to

any man though the state

of this world screams to me i am not

that i am my own woman and

i belong wholly to myself

and the universe

it humbles me

calls out and says i have a

universal duty to share with

humanity to nurture

and serve the sisterhood

to raise those that need raising

the name kaur runs in my blood

it was in me before the word itself existed

it is my identity and my liberation

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