Eyes fixated, furrowed and focused on the camera

Hair hidden behind a hoody the color of rust

Flat tear drop shaped silver earrings dangling

But her lips were what captured me

They danced a quick rhythm at first

Tap dancing percussive steps, deliberate and pointed

Then slowed to a ballet adagio

Her voice

Cool, smoky, direct

The way her words undulated

There was life

There was paradise lost

There was U.N.I.T.Y that's a unity

Love a black woman from infinity to infinity

Those were her words

And I believed them

No one told me words could be sentient in this way

Separate from the starch, scripted confines of a page

Apart from the accompaniment of notes

Neither singing nor talking

Both coup and sanctuary

No one taught me that words could weave their way into this mess of a beauty

No one taught me hip hop was poetry

I had to learn