What language does a black girl scream in? by Jessica Care Moore Maybe it is the back breakin' sound of her body Surrendering to her child being pulled from her womb Maybe she screams in spanish as her curly yet oh-so nappy curls dance off the indifference of her parents who forgot we didn't swim to these islands dancing off the reality that dark skinned dominicans and butter-ricans share the same oppressors no matter how you slice the plantain or boil the rice. Maybe she wails a sophisticated French wail With a new orleans gumbo pot of crawfish stew on the knee of some silver eyed fisherman who said he loved her because her skin is light and she got a special blend of Negro nobody gonna every believe was ever black on Sunday at church with her Baptist preacher mississippi daddy Maybe she screams in Cherokee, Apachi and Sioux When she walks on the land her ancestors blessed She takes on the language of the earth and her tongue Has lengthy conversations with the trees that once held her close To hide her from settlers searching for her hair to wrap In plastic and sell to merchants in inner cities who die it bright tribal colors to black girls with native blood. What language does a black girl scream in? Maybe she has a blue black deep down in the gut Southern drawl she never apologizes for to her northern Neighbors who never claim her ancestors but keep on putting band daids where cotton has surely pricked their great grandmamas finger They don't understand why they see ghosts at night or know the Words to slave hymns never taught. Maybe she is dark as the night that scares the folks afraid of Themselves and this is the light that leads them back to the Deep blue black ocean we all lived before race ever existed."Just a moment" by Nas featuring Quan