I was walking

My feet nearly floated with each step

The sun cloaked my body in sunlight like linen

Yet I was worried

My anxiety gripped me like a chokehold

People say that these things hang over you like a cloud

But they're wrong

Because mine hang around my neck,necklace

They descend from my head

Twist themselves into a loop

Tie themselves into a knot

And like colored folk who didn't know no better They hang--

They are a noose on a tree branch

Squeezing life out of its companion

As its closest confidant struggles in its embrace

And its bitterest enemy fights to death

But mine haven't killed me yet

Yet they do burn

They singe my essence down to the carbon Pressuring it to the point of either shatter or shimmer

Cracked rocks or diamonds with glimmer

That's why I let the heat simmer

Why I allow the flames to Burn Around my neck Like a necklace

Yet that burn is exactly why I'm worried