Allow me to introduce myself
I am an amateur philosopher & professional vixen
Weaving webs of fairytales for those that will listen.
Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself
After all, you don't know me from Eve.
Allow me to introduce myself to you.
I am from where right is wrong & wrong is right.
I am from Negro spirituals being sung as sharecroppers till their soil.
I am from "bitch you talk like a white girl."
I am from a time & space where there is no time & space
4th dimension, over the moon, through the stars
& all them rings on Saturn mean that God really must've liked it
& if you find that joke corny, that's okay because sometimes my humor falls a little short
& this wine that I'm drinking has me thinking things that I won't even remember in the mornin'.
But behind my armor of drunk chatter & a pretty smile I am truly a CATWOMAN at heart.
I like the color black, I land on my feet, shiny objects amuse me, & if I could lick myself...
I would because it would save me a whole lot of unnecessary bullshit.
Untamable by nature & defiant by design
I see well at night & yes, I have left claw marks on a few backs but truthfully...
Being a CATWOMAN means that I will follow my own desires.
So, if I wanna roar, I'll ROAR!
I'll sing songs about Jesus & songs about sinning
Drink beer in the daytime, eat an entire pie, & then do a workout tape
Because I am a ONE WOMAN REVOLUTION.
& as my own P.R. manager I can assure that I won't stop until this revolution is televised.
A revolution of brown skin & thick thighs
Of hard work during hard times
Of making love during rainstorms
& walking barefoot in your own backyard
Keeping a flask in your garter belt & crying less frequently
But at the end of the day...
I'm just a dreamer who was awake at 1:58am
That allowed my pen to speak for me.
Kristina Marshall is a senior at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette graduating in December with a concentration in Arts & Humanities. Kristina is a television and radio personality who is a published poet and actress in southern Louisiana. As a production assistant at Cité des Arts, she started a night of spoken word and open mic poetry titled "Words & Words" which is held monthly in Lafayette, Louisiana. Kristina now works as a radio sports announcer for KPEL-FM. Her recent stage credits include: The Vagina Monologues, For Colored Girls Who've Considered Suicide: When the Rainbow is Enuf, Trickster at the Gate, Bat Boy, The Birthday Dinner: A Play by Brian Egland, and Insurrection: Holding History.