FemmeNoir
A Web Portal For Lesbians Of Color


Poetry & Fiction

Chyann L Oliver

 
Chyann Oliver is a 19 year old African-American lesbian, aspiring author of poetry and college student living in Maine.  She writes a lot about what she observes in life and it pleases her to share her love for writing with other people.  

No I Will Not
 
Male and female are at club and guy approaches female in a derogatory
way. This is the depiction of the scenario between the two.

Male: "Damn shorty, can I get your name?"

Female: "You know what I hate that brothas contemplate that they can
even get with me. Why you can believe, how you can conceive that you can be the one for me. Cause from what I see, you ain't even that fly. Why
you would think I would even reply to your weak game that's inane, it's
a shame!

When you respect me then you can get my name!"

Male: "Name don't want it and don't need it. Cause conceited girls like you need to be mistreated. You say I ain't fly, yeah you should know pigeon. With your skin tight jeans, you know fiends just wanna hit it.  Maybe I'll get with you when your weave is redone, and maybe you'll be my lucky one. But for right now, I'm gonna make a switch, cause all you are is a stuck up bitch!"

It begins when they disrespect us with their slanderous tone as they caress the microphone.

Yet we recite the rhymes and exalt the crimes against us.

But every lyric recited has often incited the Degradation and defamation of us all.

So ladies here's a wake up call!

I will not let you degrade me
When I am one that made thee.
When I am one that carries the seed.
When I am one that bears your breed.
I will not conform no matter what you say.
I don't give a damn if you won't accept me anyway.

I will not let you diminish my soul
When I am the half that makes you whole.
When I am the strength that makes you strong.
When I am the one that creates a throng.
I will not let you degrade me
Cause I am one that made thee.
Cause I am one that
Carries the seed that bears your breed.

Copyright Chyann L Oliver
 

I'm Diggin' You: Something For Lizzie

I'm diggin' you
Each and every bit of you
I didn't realize how much I was mesmerized by you
Pure beauty
Beauty pure

Yeah, I am feelin'you
I am wantin' you for sure
As I sit and reminisce about my first kiss
And how it is nothing compared to what our first
would be

I see you and me together
Whether or not you are feelin' me
Like I am feelin' you
I wanted to let you know that I am diggin' you
Each and every bit of you
Diggin' you deeper than the depths of the soul
The essence and the whole of you

As I sit and think
My thoughts are clouded
Yet they are guided by you

A melody plays in my mind
And all of my senses are intertwined
As Ms. Scott sings of the way that you love me
Or could love me
And I sing harmoniously
Love Rain down on me, on me, down on me

Yeah, I am sure that she and I could agree
That I am diggin' you
Like she is lovin' Lyzel in e flat
Perhaps we could get to know each other better
We could listen to Sarah

Cause your love
Our love
Would be better than ice cream
Well at least that is what it would seem to me

Yeah, I am diggin' you
Each and every bit of you
I'm lovin' your eyes
Hoping you see me in them

In a light that illuminates a darker part of you
We could get to know each other
Better than a sister or brother
Like lovers

As Maxwell says:
Cause this is only for lovers only
And if it’s cool then we can do a lil sumthin, sumthin
We could sip some tea
Since I know that is what you like

Or we could listen to some India.Arie
Or we could discuss poetry
Or maybe you and me
We could reflect
Or have dialect
About growing intellects

You could teach me new things
Cause I love to learn
And baby I am a born student
And I yearn for you

You could be the yin to my yang
The boom to my bang
The ghetto to my slang
Shit this ain’t politically correct
It would be a love thang

It would be continual
Baby I am bilingual about it
Te Quiero Bonita (I want you beautiful)
Cause I am diggin’ you
I am feelin’ you
Yeah, I am diggin’ you

New Moon Rising

There was a time when I would sleep and dream
A slumber so blissful, tranquil and serene
While the moon illuminated the dark opal sky
And the stars glistened like crystal
With angels
Watching below from up high

There was a promise of tomorrow
Hope was being born
And this is while I would dream and sleep
And pray to the lord
My soul to keep

But I wake in the interim interrupted by the night
Because the moon ain’t been shining so clear and so bright
It’s been cloudy
And hopeless
And afraid to rise
It sheds its fears and concerns
Every night the earth cries

Its tears of abuse and of aggravation
The molestation of her seed
The growing discrimination and her children’s excessive greed
You bleed and she drowns from your stupidity
That could’ve been avoided if you sought knowledge from the tree

But you didn’t agree with her
So you shall reap what you have sown and the more money that you make
The less that you have grown

The more that you lie and cheat and deceive
And exploit the innocent
The Gods look down on you to get on your knees and repent
But you are negligent
Serpent

Eager to consume the appetizing fruit
But beware of looks
Because the apple is tainted
It is forbidden fruit

Yes it is the fruit of our labor
That never gets repaid
The free enterprise opulence
That was founded by the slaves
Who were never compensated
Now the issue is debated

In this land indivisible
That is about to be divided
It is misguided because of its unrequited love
For the negro race

We are misguided by the lies and the figures that we have prided
We think we are the greatest
Students of the revolution
This is elitism

Yes, we are the greatest at racism, sexism, homophobia, heterosexism, ageism, and whatever –ism there is
Cause America’s categorization doesn’t end
With the color of one’s skin

It begins
Like I said
It was the foundation for other forms of hatred
Not just in this country
But covertly in other nations

Now overtly in Asia and in other continents
Because we have the desire to have the one title that fits
We want to be the superpower
Or rather the super destructor

Eliminate ethnicity
Destroy different cultures
Speak one language
And only worship green
Because Allah, Christ, Buddah or Jehova are thought of as obscene

And we have so much money from the Middle Passage
And we can’t give any of our assets to the poor
The sick
Disabled
Or the needy
Nah, cause some of yall white folks are plain stingy
Just greedy

You say that we minorities are lazy and won’t work to better our condition
But when we want to work then we need your permission
And you say "access denied" "credit declined" you are not approved because you are too dark
Uneducated
Too crude
Too Black
Too Latino
Too Asian
Too ethnic
Not Caucasian

So, sometimes this bootstrap concept
Is not the solution to our plight
But, would it be if we were all white
I don’t know
So what do we do
We shoot and kill our kin
Instead of silence there is violence

We eradicate the people with our skin
We do it before a rookie officer
Shoots a black suspect 45 times
Leaving a nigger lifeless
Then he’s acquitted of homicide

We do it by poisoning our community
With cocaine, heroine, crack
Or whatever release mechanism that allows us to escape from this modern day terrorism

But we face it every day
We can look out of project windows and see the specimen
Cause we are the project
Their experimentation

We watch teenage mothers
Getting younger
Giving birth everyday

The only way out is an education
But determination is lacking
And rapping gets you the dollar quicker

So the forlorn people remain dejected
While the blunt clouds get thicker
I try to lie my head on my pillow
Hoping to sleep a peaceful slumber
While gazing at the Willow
Cause that tree gives profound wisdom

Cause the moon no longer gives guidance
And my nights are getting tireless or tiresome
And I am fearful as the night hears my sighs
And the morning comes
As the world continues to viciously revolve
And I am agonizing
I pray for a new moon one day to start rising
 

Ghetto Feminist

I am a ghetto feminist
I ain’t one of those middle class white girls from suburbia
Walkin
And talkin about equal wages
When I am half of their equal
I am apart of that 3rd wave movement
Cause, this feminist shit goes through stages
I ain’t about burnin my bra
Cause in my life, I need some wonder
Under certain circumstances
Instead, I burn my Timbs and Tommy

I burn all the records that disrespect me
I burn all, well some, of my hoochie gear,
Because I am sincere about this movement
I want to break free of these Manacles that have captured me
I wanna immerse myself in a truth that enraptures me
I am a ghetto feminist

A reaction to the product of white capitalism
And the consumption of black miseducation
And fictitious emancipation, which carefully construct the
Commencement of incarceration
I am a ghetto feminist

Informed about my people and our struggle
Worried about surviving eugenics cause racism is no longer generic like it used to be
The plan is to get all of us black and brown folk dismissed
Before we can resist you
But remember nine one one
Has shown you
What you white boys in blue and green have done to spill our red blood
Which one is patriotism?
I am a ghetto feminist

My theoretical rhetoric is from observing my people
Using a street dialect is how we can connect
As a ghetto feminist

I address issues my sisters face
Concerning my brothers who abuse and misuse us in their videos
Cause we are their tools
Helping become their hos
Or whores
Shit it is their duty to do us because we are their chores
They lose all of their direction with the onset of an erection
And the image of their reflection
From their platinum guides them
To sell out even more and then who is the whore?
I am a ghetto feminist

A sista
Dually educated
Highly venerated
Even with my finger pointin
My neck snappin
Hand on my hip
And mouth yappin away
I am a ghetto feminist
As womanist and as ghetto as I can be


Copyright Chyann L Oliver

 

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