REMEMBER?

Remember me?

I am the girl

with the dark skin

whose shoes are thin

I am the girl

with rotted teeth

I am the dark

rotten-toothed girl

with the wounded eye

and the melted ear.

I am the girl

holding their babies

cooking their meals

sweeping their yards

washing their clothes

Dark and rotting

and wounded, wounded.

I would give

to the human race

only hope.

I am the woman

with the blessed

dark skin

I am the woman

with teeth repaired

I am the woman

with the healing eye

the ear that hears.

I am the woman: Dark,

repaired, healed

Listening to you.

I would give

to the human race

only hope.

I am the woman

offering two flowers

whose roots

are twin

Justice and Hope

Let us begin.