When I grew up...

The thing I did not see...

In magazines and on TV screens

and Even with other brown people on BET

Was a single girl who was proud to be

Short, dark with a head full of hair 

that everyone was almost certainly

going to tell her was unpleasantly nappy

 

I did not see the glorification of people 

Who thought like me

Of poets and authors and people 

Who told it for the truth 

Not what sponsors wanted to hear and see

I did not grow up with activists like me

 

So I grew up feeling aggrevated

I looked high and low and I waited

To find a place that took care of people like me

But I didn't. 

 

So I said...I will study. I will learn and I will read

And I will create a safe space for people like me.

So I started with psychology. 

I said I will help heal the hurt minds and broken hearts

Of people like me

I will help them express themselves and see

That mental illness is just that...Illness 

And that it really is okay to get help 

For being depressed and anxious like me

 

But it didn't feel right. 

I felt chained and not free

Attempting to care for only the minds

Of people like me

 

So I stopped and became a CNA

I will go to nursing school I said

And help to heal the bodies 

Of people who are sickly like me

But something was missing

 

So I went back to psychology but this time

I added political science

And said I will help the minds and environment

Of people like me. 

I will protect the children so that they don't fail 

In broken homes

So that they can go to College like me

 

But it still felt wrong. And as I tried...

I was anguished to see

Cancer wrecking havoc on the minds

The bodies

The self worth and Self Esteem 

On the beautiful women in my family 

Church and Blood Who were strong 

And proud and Brown like me

 

So I faltered. Had a scare with Cancer myself

And realized there was a gap in the health care system

For all women.

Because any of us could get sick like me

 

So I did something that shocked everyone

Who expected me to be a lawyer

Or a doctor

Or some famous person on TV

 

I went to hair school

What??? 

A smart girl like me??

 

Yes. A smart girl like me.

At the Aveda Institute 

With combs and brushes

Studying how to use plants and herbs

How to hollistically enhance the beauty 

Of people not just people who look like me

 

Because I realized that to treat a man (Or woman like me!)

You must start at the top of his head 

And go down to his feet

And treat everything

Physically, emotionally, socially

And Spirtually for him to become whole

And start to work on happy.

 

So I started to plan and admit it will take 

All the people like me

And we will open a place 

That treats the whole man

And his whole community

From hair to help finding a job

From health of mind to health of soul

So that we can heal entire communities

And teach people to care for in all ways 

And to love themselves

And show there is only one kind of person 

Who is truly like me

And that is the person who is:

 

Human.

 

That is my job and that is my dream

This wellness, hollistic, whole soul

Approach community center

That will build, heal and help

Mankind

You know..Those people who are like me.