President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walking Pennsylvania Ave at second inauguration.

My President is FOREVER Black

Shades of Mourning in Black America

Today we come together
Marveling at the miracle
Which is our Blackness
Not any regular, plain old Black
For on this day of mourning
We pull out our finest linen
We make ashes of Ebony
We don Black
In stately shades and jewel-tones
Onyx and Obsidian

We pull out our best Blackness
formed in a contrasting
kaleidoscope of identities
The stuff of Afropolitan, immigrant dreams
With a hint of Kemetic undertones
And Southern roots

Jet Black and Sable
Fabricated in softly overlapping layers
That we dabbled in
Even as white angst rests nearby

Today we see sisters and brothers robed in Blackness
Woven together in the stark contrast
Of a distinctly Southern-style creation
Smoky, Soot Black
Derived from a mix smoldering anger and our defiance
And remnants of burnt crosses
in our not so distant past

We come forth today anointed
In a rich, pure Black
Oil and flames
A patchwork of Blackness
Pressed down and folded upon itself
Until if one looks long enough
You can see the infinite gradation
Of Blackness it holds
Like deep, still water

President Obama (White House Image)

And together we look upon the man of the hour
Dressed in his sharpest Black
Charcoal, well-suited
Blackish, Colored
Fashioned through intense desire
To learn, to understand
Well-read, yet misunderstood
Brimming with American Exceptionalism

President and First Lady (GETTY Image)

A shining prince of a different mold
His Blackness brought to its fullness
In the brightness of her beauty
His love, their truth

Even as we feel the threat of Midnight
Darkening the horizon
Know that this is no funeral
Watch as our Blackness transforms
Transmuted, mysterious
Look on baffled as our mourning turns to gladness
As we reassemble our palette
We dance with loosened tongues
Ready to expand our vocabulary

Image by Jeri Hilt (jerihilt.com)

Preparing to birth new shades of Blacknesses
Inked of Moonlight and Stardust
Extracted from souls of Black folk
Graphite and Carbon
Elemental, Intergalactic, Technicolor
Afrofuturistic spirits
past, present, and beyond
An Eternal Dark Matter
To which we all know
We are destined to return
The most glorious fade to Forever Black.

Man in Black Lives Matter Hoodie in Front of the U.S. Capital (AP Photo)

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