Sad Girl Poetry

Excerpts from Preface:

"There is so much trauma assigned to girlhood and womanhood that female resilience is not a wonder but a necessity, in my opinion. The strength and tolerance of women towards pain is not a beautiful coincidence, a way for nature to assist us to fulfil our natural duties, but a warning and a buffer against the consequences of female embodiment. Dramatic, I know. But that's how I feel."

"This collection is everything I have felt, experienced, and thought regarding embodying femininity, as a person that identifies as a queer, cis female. The poems are about being a black/African girl, being a sad little girl, being a queer girl, being born a girlchild, just everything girl."

Excerpt poem, 'Gothic Princess' (page 23):

There I go swimming in my bath salts,
Rivers of tears that scream that it's my fault.
I'm drowning in my blood - tastes like rich Port,
Aging like wine I'm not like all sort.

Gothic princess you know you're so lost,
But of all people you know your soul most.
Retro chic with a Vogue pose-
Trauma so beautiful: it stops shows.

Ethereal magic - watch minds blow,
Moving mountains how? - I don't know.
A researcher in power, like Foucault-
I want to be free in jail, like Rousseau.

I started writing this poem on a deep low,
About how I was ready to let go.
Been running to art since how old?
This is how I survive, turning pain gold.

Factory of life never factor what's told,
I'm a stubborn little freak, never bought what they sold.
But I'm always going to eat, even if they throw bones,
And I'm always going to run, it's all that I know.