I was born a girl, trained to be a mule, but made into a unicorn. Mythical in nature.
Dying to understand my blackness and my womaness.
My racial identity a social construction; my biological identity a weapon of mass destruction. I needed help understanding myself. So I prostrated myself before man-made alters for clarity. I writhed beneath mankind’s bias in discomfort. I beat back tears and fears in a world that found new ways to dismiss and dismantle me.
I was born a girl, taught to see myself as a mule, but made into a unicorn. Mythical in nature.
Lips and Breasts, curves and coils; I was less than the sum of my parts. Violence was done to me. Crimes against character and spirit justified. My pain went unacknowledged, even by my own mind, until I nearly lost it.
I was born a girl, trained to be a mule, but made into a unicorn. Mythical in nature.
Ugliness is character forming. Thus, the rejection of my mother’s beauty had some unintended side effects: metamorphosis. A magnificent creature emerged, one once buried beneath dust and debris.
I was born a girl, taught to see myself as a mule, but made into a unicorn. Mythical in nature.
Cast out, I found community among outcasts. In the middle of loving myself, I found myself, and once I found myself, I could recognize my tribe.
No longer a reformed mule; I accepted the form I had always been.
I am the proverbial unicorn; I prevail despite all odds.
Postscriptum:
A little background on unicorn symbolism and lore:
Unicorns bring the gifts of all possibilities, wisdom and the clever pursuit of dreams. Unicorns represent transmutation (passing through boundaries), spiritual sight (to see past all illusions until truth is reveal), and manifestation (to bring imagination to reality).
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