INYIM Media Poem Corner: By Kevin Powell - "Janet Jackson Never Lies." VIBE Contributor Pays Homage To The Pop Music Icon.

INYIM Media Poem Corner: By Kevin Powell  - "Janet Jackson Never Lies." VIBE Contributor Pays Homage To The Pop Music Icon.

"won’t wait till she gone

to see what we got

cocoa-creamed queen in a big yellow taxi

mother father nine children

two-bedroom shoebox house

gary, indiana kool-aid acid test

generational trauma passed around

like a stillborn

baby

tucked inside a moth-ridden blanket

god’s gracious gift

her nametag

walking miracle

her laundry bag

little girls have dreams too

little girls want control too

super-woman super-star

african songs african griots

kidnappings middle passages

plantations beatings rapes of grown-ish bodies

reconstruction jim crow minstrel shows

black women blamed banished

like they still the un-godly mules of the earth

she smiles anyway she smiles anyway

sugar bowl of color envy malfunctioning

like a tree branch chopping a rope in half

you can shade her resume

but you can’t shade her hustle and flow." - Vibe.com