Modern Day Black Momma

Who Is She?

Who is the modern day Black mama?

Originally free
Torn from Africa
Groomed into an American slave

Somebody saw
through her dark skin
Their American dream

a cultural genocide
Stripped her authenticity

Her family
Broken
By greed

Self-identity, family values and traditions
she struggled to hold

Freedom for her family
Freedom they got

For those who wanted it
scattered abroad
Livin’
afro-euro

holdin’ on
to the
underground railroad
negro mother’s
dream

The modern day black mama, who is she
today?

She’s the thriving successful business woman,
the career mother struggling with corporate racism
she’s mama and daddy sometimes
rolled in one

she’s
the songstress longing for a hit solo
tryin’ to sing away
her blues
but
procrastination redirects
her dreams


she’s the divorcee looking for romance—
her mental baggage is too heavy to embrace new relationships

Mama is the beauty shop gossip queen
braiding, weaving, pressing and perming hair

chatting with clients
she hopes will continue to bring in the revenues

she’s the waitress in the restaurant, the cashier at the local grocers
the banker who cashes your neighbor’s paychecks

rejected
by a society

who says:
she ain’t pretty enough
ain’t light enough
ain’t dark enough
too fat
too thin

hair ain’t straight or kinky enough -- unpolished English

You know – the fictitious beauty queen
we ain’t gone
neva see

She’s
the mother who shuffles between work and welfare –
struggling
to find herself in a world that does not understand;

she’s
the mother
living
in low income housing—
she ain’t got enough money
to pay rent
on her own;

workin’
getting’ letters
in the mail
sayin’
“yo’bills are
Still
past due”

she’s the mother
who frequents juvenile courts
to RESCUE her rebellious son.

she’s
the modern day Black mama who arrives to the church house
seeking answers to her problems
and consolation from the Word of God.

Sanity, Cancer, AIDS
She’s still fightin’
Pushin
For her life

she is
the personification of the ghetto queen
a leader in her community
with painted acrylic nails, hair styles, fashions and figures that become a phenomenon;

she’s the one with the fancy church hat—

with a décor of DIAMONDS and GOLD
on hands
that labored for years;

she’s
the bus driver, the construction worker even the postman
the police officer and the JUDGE
who must
JAIL
their own.

she is
the MBA entrepreneur
with an EMPIRE of ideas;

the single parent re-entry student starting over—
PARENTING
demanded her attention
in her TEEN years;

she’s the TEACHER who empowers the mind,

the actress
fighting
for her role;

the doctor
the lawyer
who graduated with honors and credentials
to carry her to the top;

the first lady
whose skin tone they ain’t neva seen
as… the prime-time
speaker
stretched
center stage
of America

she’s
the minister trying to save your soul,



the activist pounding on your door
saying
“vote for your rights.”

she is
the dancer who will never grace
the stage of an audience—
she lost her dance along the way

she’s the prostitute
trying to escape an environment
she’s addicted to;

the drug addict
the thief
who got lost
trying to find her way;

she’s
the mama whose been abused as a small child,
DAMAGED
and prone to DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
relationships;

she’s the one with the mental problem
now a government responsibility—

the one holding it all together
FIGHTING
for BOTH
of your lives;

she’s the one
REACHING OUT
pulling you back and BEGGING
you to STOP and listen.

she’s
the FIRST person the neighbors, relatives, school officials, and police call
when our sons fall into trouble.

I wondered if you knew
the modern day Black mama?

~Copyright, Felice Bois, 2006.