If ever I could speak to you

I’d tell you to just be you

If ever I wrote a letter to my younger self

She’d know self-love & self-respect

If ever I could tell my younger self

About her nappy hair

I’d tell her to embrace it

And to swing it high and proud in the air

I’d tell her that her sassy attitude

Wasn’t an attempt at her being rude

I’d tell her to put her hands on her hips

As many times as she needed

Just in case she need to remind these misters

That they’d better hurry up and get them some business

I’d make sure she understood 

That nothing is wrong with her full facial features

And that plenty would try if they could

To emulate the details of such a beautiful creature

I’d tell her to stand up for her people

And to always fight for freedom

I’d tell her to try not to hide 

Her boisterous laugh and proud smile

Someone somewhere appreciates it

And someone somewhere yearns to hear it

I’d tell her that it is okay to play

And that the structure of her world

Will only be a product of her vivid imagination

She’d know that to love is to enjoy freedom

And that no one is allowed to strip her of that right

And that loving a black man is also freedom

Even if his skin is as dark as night

But since I cannot travel in time

To tell my younger self what I missed

I won’t forget to tell my future child

That her soul is sun kissed

So, Little Black Baby, learn to be free

Learn that your roots run deeper than the seas

Little Black Baby, love who you are

Love that the strands on your head outnumber the stars

Little Black Girl, start learning early if you can

Learning to be care free, in a world that forces you to be bland.

-Sarabi