‘Don’t just be eye candy be soul food’

I can’t take credit for that one, I read it in a book

But the sentiment still resonates with me, thought it would give this poem have a good hook

 

Ladies tell me, do you know how it feels to be objectified, treated for nothing more than how you look?

 

Eye candy over soul food

The idea kinda makes me think about the ways I feel about my moods

I don’t want to just feel happy, I want joyfulness to be what I exude

 

I want the content of my character to be more alluring than my caramel hue

Remember that by praising me, putting my lightness on a pedestal as the ‘right type of black’ the very opposite for half of me is what you do

By saying I’m ‘just dark enough’ you insult not only my mother but all my ancestors on my maternal side too

Those whose spirits live on inside of me in the work I do

Those who were battered, beaten, left with nothing

  Tortured, hung, lynched, left to rot in the nude

 

‘Shut up You’re Pretty’

That’s the title of a series of short stories written by Toronto author Téa Mutonji, her work also resonates with me, and it might with you

I’ve been made to feel like my voice doesn’t matter

Silenced because you can’t be pretty and educated too

 

Although I’ve always loved fashion, taking compliments on my appearance is still something that’s a little difficult to do

Believe it or not, ‘pretty’ is a compliment that has made me feel blue

Because I don’t want to be just eye candy I want to be soul food

 

Tell me I’m sweet like cinnamon, ginger more nuanced than the shortbread you’d pair with your tea on a Sunday afternoon

I am not just eye candy I am soul food

 

I am grace and grit

I am my Irish temper and West Indian attitude

I am The Nutmeg Princess

I am the Celtic Goddess Danu

 

I have a sunshine soul

I glow brightly with aptitude

Effervescently I will radiate love and light

In what I say

In what I do

Even if my voice shakes

Even if I may not always be the loudest in the room

 

I am not just eye candy

I am soul food

Rachel J.I. McCallum