I will have lived...REJJ ©

Written over the course of a few nights after last week's Black Girl Writers' Crew meeting....

I don’t want to be King,
don’t want to be elected president.
Don’t stress about constructing monuments,
to the legacy of my glory.
I don’t need to be Queen,
I’m not the leader of your revolution,
I’m not offering any big solutions,
to the failed economy.
I’ll be no one of consequence
someone easily missed
in your sweep of the crowd,
you might not even learn my name,
and most likely
no sonnets will sing my fame,
but I will have lived.
I will have laughed until my stomach hurt,
and skinned my knees.
I will have lived.
I will have eaten cake and icecream for breakfast,
gotten lost on seven continents,
learned new swear words from the children of foreign streets.
I will have lived.
I will have tasted the salt of oceans
and the honey of mountain sunrises.
I will have danced to set my soul on fire
and known the beauty of solitude.
I will have understood someone perfectly
and lived to be perfectly understood,
if only for a moment.
I will have lived.
I will have loved and lost,
and loved and won,
and loved and live to love again
and again
unceasingly,
belligerently,
joyously.
I will have lived
and that will be my legacy.