Rested
Black woman stay woke
stay up all night
can’t sleep
when the world stay tryna kick her door in
stay coming for her son’s blood
stay coming for her daughter’s skin and then
have the audacity not to call her by
the name Black woman gave her
Black woman
stay read up
stay blessed up
stay calling you out on your shit
cause she can’t afford not to
when your opinions threaten her livelihood
when Black man call her to the front lines
she come
she fight
she spread herself so thin across the battlefield
she look back and
Black man ain’t nowhere to be found
when white woman call her to the front lines
she come
she fight
she scream until her voice is a ghost no one remembers
she look back and
white woman got a gun pointed at her head
and they wonder why Black woman so angry
why she got a brass knuckle tongue and an attitude
eyes stay rollin
stay ready to fight
cause Black woman tired
Black woman can’t sleep
gotta watch all sides cause they stay coming for her
and nobody got her back
and don’t you think that might be exhausting work?
to build everything
and still be butchered in your sleep?
to have no one bother to remember your name?
Jasmine L. Combs is a writer, performer, and event organizer from Philadelphia, PA. She received her BA in English from Temple University, is a Babel Poetry Collective alum, and former Spoken Word Editor for The Fem Lit Magazine. Jasmine was the 2015 Grand Slam Champion of The Philly Pigeon Poetry Slam, a 2015 National Poetry Slam semi-finalist, and a member of the 2016 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational winning team. She also won the 2015 Apiary Magazine STUNG Writing Contest and her winning piece “Night Child” was turned into an animation. Her work has been published in Vagabond City Lit, Luna Luna, WusGood?, and her performances have been featured on Button Poetry, SlamFind, Blavity, and The Huffington Post. In 2014 she published her first chapbook Universal Themes. Currently, Jasmine is an organizer for The Philly Pigeon Poetry Slam and a Literary Bae at Good Ground publishing services.