the newer, happier me
she dresses like a 1950s housewife,
with piercings and a denim jacket.
she rides a bike and drives a Camaro
(yes she’s an amateur mechanic).
she wears her afro high, proud, au naturel;
she smiles a lot, for no reason in particular.
she paints for fun, all the time, and she’s good at it too,
it’s mostly Malcolm x and Angela Davis but it could really sell.
she buys her clothes at thrift stores for a fraction of the cost.
you could write an indie song/and or film,
where she’s a metaphor for feminism and self-love, or something equally pretentious;
she’s nice but she’s having none of your bullshit.
she plays bass guitar at weekends,
and ukelele on Sunday mornings.
she’s beautiful in the truest sense of the word.
she reads, the classics and likes Kerouac unironically.
she wears hipster glasses (ironically).
she’s as woke as they come, unapologetically black,
a wrecking ball to your complacency in the face of patriarchal white supremacy.
she bakes and cooks- vegan haute cuisine.
she’s funny, unbearably funny, side-splittingly funny,
because she really doesn’t care what you think.
she volunteers to feed the homeless and save the planet. she writes music, poetry, plays, short stories – a literary prodigy.
she goes out, she spends her week-ends gallery surfing then bar hopping, just to drink white wine and talk existential despair.
centre of attention, but modest nonetheless.
she’s thikkkkk, booty popping every which way!
she has the type of body they write R&B songs about.
she travels, practising ethical tourism, volunteering abroad,
and leapfrogging from youth hostel to youth hostel.
she’s clever, fantastically clever,
cleverer than i can describe, MENSA smart but smarter.
she has friends, close friends, lots of friends
whom she has made a meaningful connection to,
who understand her in the truest sense of the word.
she’s successful, financially stable, even rich for her age.
but mostly, she’s complete in a way i am yet to understand.
she’s not bored, she doesn’t lust for love, or for money,
she doesn’t want for anything.
she knows what is important.
she is important.
she has learnt the art of being,
she just is,
and that is simply enough for her.
Bella Smith
