Poetra Asantewa - XY Lyrics

There will be no stagnation
There will be no permanence to our blues
There will be no mourning of the dead while we're still breathing into our bodies
This poem is having none of that
In this poem we are still becoming
Some days we're the little boy in class being punished for staining the front of his school shirt with a bruised mango
And some days we're the grown man in his gray couch happily licking mango off his hands
Our hunger is so ripe everyone wants to feed us
The whole world is our playground
We're old enough to not be scared but not young enough to have no cares
We gulp down sadness as though it were fresh air
We think we're burying our grief but we're only rehabilitating it
Sometimes we catch our bodies bending into nonchalance
Our minds become a container for bruises unattended
Every try again is a prayer that didn't get lost under the weight of unease
We trace the backbone of a wound with forced smiles and show up for ourselves in spite of ourselves
Some days we're so full of ache our words are endless
Some days we're so full of ache words dry up in our mouth
And it feels as though everything is conspiring to steal our joy
But this poem is having none of that
When we manage to sit in the stillness of our thoughts
We imagine God laughing, a big bold laugh that sounds just like ours

We are not there yet but by God will we get there
And while we wait
And while we strive
And while we tire and fuel our patience
And we will get there and by God will we shout