In celebration of 2018 #PoetryMonth, which would not be complete without a poem by the Lorde herself.  I was never bothered by so-called negative perception of feminism. Or the tag of  “angry and bitter women” as often applied to feminists.  I fully embrace all my labels, happily. The works of African and Black women writers are the flame that lights my path; the lights in dark tunnels; the companions on this journey. This poem is still so relevant today.  Even in its caution, it is beauty.

Who Said It Was Simple

There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.

Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiting brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.
But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in colour
as well as sex

and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations.

—— by Audre Lorde