I am 26 today…
dont cry.
I mean it girl.

I am 26 today,

and God have I learned so much,
with still so much to learn!
So many things lost in the abyss…
ya know? 
like the smell of my childhood room
and the color pallete of an 08 summers sky.

Cause I’m brushing 30,
with 21 behind glass,
and sixteen a tongue I’ve outgrown.
 
But fuck it im gonna cry
cause its my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to!

So I do.

Tears fall and reverb,
like something out of a J dilla beat.
Not cause im sad,
cause im bolder now!
I laugh louder! 
I wear more gold,
walk with my head erect!

I carry my age in my posture now.
Steady shoulders, no folding. 
Its how I speak my name truer—
more bass and depth.
How I ask myself first,
and trust my answer.

and its keeps getting better...

Now, I don’t spend what I can’t afford,
cause recklessness cost time
and oh how I miss time, 
before it had teeth.

My style is different.
My hair is loc’d.
Closet full of ancestral fabric,
walls cluttered with black art.
More rooted in truth,
more “I am”, than becoming.

And I’m learning to hold joy
with interlocked fingers,
not being guilty of the weight.
Cause it is mine,
and it is sanctioned.

I let laughter take up space,
grace succeed,
and love spill over—
like libation poured for who I used to be.

I’m 26 today!

and there’s so far to go.
But im here,

GOD IM HERE!