I rip the mask off that has been suffocating me
As I inhale for the first time, I can finally breathe and see
And I stretch my arms wide to a landscape of authentic horizons
Blurred from the darkness and captured by static air in the wind
My coils save me like parachutes
A woman who was made into a perfect puppet of your desires
I had once aspired for the sake of concerts and bank, balance, boom
To modifying myself differed from the child within the womb
Dancing in the mirrors of pop star likeness I thought it was best to mute
Sitting in chairs of Vogue Magazine moments
With hair prodded and scrunched up sounds acute
And they think and they feel scared by our excellence
Crippled by the stereotypes and unaware of the history
That runs through the veins of their ancestors
Veins murderously transmitting itself into institutions of power and privilege
Hide you puppets, for intimidation is what bleeds from your mouth
When you are open and real and bountiful and Black
Facts, we buy blankets from white men and women
Drape ourselves in disguises or versions
And brittled and fragmented we carry our inner selfs
In hope not to disrupt the office protocol with our braids
But we leap out into the sun and we strip ourselves naked and take the gun
And shatter the delusion of the history that raped us and let us bleed
Through our music and culture and naturally
We scream, we scream, we give birth to ourselves
We say we are no longer going to hide the magnificent
Let the rays boom out from your bosom so aggressively it breaks your molecules
And leaves you shedded like a snake with a new self
With your real self, with your mental health intact
No longer schismed by them in a society that makes you feel like you're not good enough
Emancipate and break it, break the brutal conservativeness, the empire, progressiveness
Breath out the fire, breath out the screams of the slaves that allowed you to hold the brave in you
Walk through Northampton Town Centre, and buy your mascara and dark shaded foundation
Be alive in your Blackness, be true in your Blackness
Be you in your Blackness, be Black in your Blackness
I rip the mask off that has been suffocating me
As I inhale air for the first time