For Ifeoma Lyrics

I want to write you the perfect poem

Paint you a portrait of beautiful

Ask you to hold each word

In the palm of your hand like promise

Wear it around your neck like keepsake

They are yours

Each one for every time

You questioned your smile

Searched for meaning

In the curves of your face

In the double dutch of a heart

Stuck in a never-ending playground game

Sis you get picked first this time

I would find that little girl

Follow her down the hallways

Of a school that will never teach her

To use her heart like a compass

I would tell her

Home will always find you

I'd leave this poem

Between the pages of books

With faces that look nothing like hers

Lay it down like a mirror

On all the stories of beauty

I would tell her

It was always you

I'd look in that crowded locker room

Filled with the laughter of girls

Who have never learned

To question their bodies

I would search for her by the sound

Of her pounding heart

Leave this like a whisper

I would say

You are one of one

I'd walk up to her in moments

Of uncontrollable laughter

With her hands shielding a mouth

Full of teeth she hasn't learned to love yet

I'd pull those fingers from her face and tell her

You can't hide the sun

There's a universe in that mouth

waiting for you to speak it

There is a timeless love

written into your face

It terrifies you and it should

Nobody ever taught you

How to look directly at God