This piece is a response to For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
Lady in Red / Now Lady in Grey
Somebody tried to walk off with all of your stuff/
That man dragging his daddy’s leather briefcase/like he hasn’t grown
into it/
He walked up on you smelling like aftershave and old pennies/
He asked/demanded/ for your place/spraying spit like a python/
But what you have he could never buy/or steal/ or colonize/
no//
He could never drill your oil/not unless you gave it away/like I did/
He hopped the fence to my garden/stole my parsley and greens/
Because I invited him through/
Now I am barren and salted/smoking roaches/over a pot roast/
Waiting up for my grey man to come home/
While he’s trying to steal your stuff/
Tired of his dry old lady/You’re a ripe apple hanging from heaven’s branches
for his/
python eyes…/
Hold on to your stuff Miss Green.
