I
I was told that my body is not my own
It belongs first to God
Then to my father
Then to the man who he gives me to
My father is dead. so who is the rightful owner of this body now?
I offer my body to my lover as if it is something that is not mine
Have you seen how people treat things that are not theirs?

II
I log into Facebook to see another meme
That pictures a scantily clad Beyonce side-by-side a headwrap donning Erykah Badu
Asking the question “why be eye candy when you can be soul food?”
Like I can't multitask
Like I won't get drunk in love then tell you to call Tyrone
Like I won't read the coldest winter ever and citizen before lunch
Like I didn't twerk across the stage to get my degree
Like I didn't write this poem to the tune of Bodak Yellow
Like I needed another serving of respectability politics
Or another man who can't be bothered with the black woman's feminism but knows how she ought to conduct herself
Like I got time for men who shame black women's sexuality in public but consume it behind closed doors
Let me be clear: ain't nobody got time for that

III
What a time to be woman
The way we show up for ourselves
The way we dare to be visible
The way we snatch our stories back from the men who co-op them
The world is not kind to a woman who is confident in her sexuality
My spirit quakes as I watch my friends explain consent to grown men
Then I have to see women shame other women for what they wear
Feminism allows you modesty in the same way it allows me to wear whatever I want
I am here as a woman to reclaim all the parts of myself I was ashamed to get to know
To proclaim myself as a woman who is both/and
Not either/or
Let me be clear, a woman who is only either is still deserving of respect
And as for me and my house
I can be eye candy and soul food
I know how to multitask