Love Letter to Dwayne Wayne
Iyalua Pope
Photography by Pinterest
Zayy, Can you send me love letter Whitley Gilbert so I can write my response?
12/12/16, 2:33 PM
Love Letter to Whitley Gilbert
Season 3, Episode 5
Girl... you the flyest woman on campus
You've got a voice that vibrates like the steps of students that won't take no nonsense.
I love it when you wear your hair to the side, like you're making room for your crown.
The way the twang of your tongue puts men on their behinds.
Behind you, a world known only to you and the eyes of a god
That has watched a rose wait for its budding
The way spring
Shows a world waiting
For us to take steps toward eternity
As if our feet already knew what direction to walk in
The sparkle between your lips remind me of my favorite dream,
the one I have with you...
And me...
And an over sized Hillman sweatshirt
Living out our college love affair
With college loans, a pair of flip sunglasses, me rambling,
my chest feeling like a yard show.
and my eyes somehow falling in love with the idea of this lasting forever
I could try to help you with your math homework.
Make the best out of solving the worlds problems
And, you could help me find stability when my hands are as homesick
As your hips
Like they have not seen movement like this from black skin
Since those four boys in Greensboro
Were telling white waiters
That they weren't going move
We dance,
Like us having this feeling in our hearts
Will never be a crime
A fairytale that has no ending.
a happily ever after
Underneath a moonlit night
See,
Who cares about the stars in the sky
When you have stars in your eyes
My heart
My muse
My sweet inspiration
Tell me that this ain't love
That this isn't the feeling that our families fought for
Having something to call your own
That no one can snatch away from you
Tell me that when you look at me
You don't see the fires of change
Tell me how we became activists
How me holding you became a demonstration
And our passion a political protest
Let me show you how even our smiles
Are picket signs
This heart fears no one
For it will never be moved unless by you
Tell me that being this
Young black and in loves
isn't a revolutionary act
Like our souls ain't been fighting for this moment all our lives
That our love matters and so do we
And I'll look at you with every intention of telling the truth
And show you, these things won't change...
Unless we make it a different world one episode at a time
By: Quintin Paschall, Morehouse College 2019
Love Letter to Dwayne Wayne
Season 3, Episode 7
Photography from Pinterest
I had a stranger visit me some time ago. Told me that something good was coming my way.. And when you showed up all fine in your crisp Hugo Boss pants that you got from my favorite store, Saks, I had a feeling that you were that good thing that he was talking about. When my eyes catch yours I get stuck in my favorite daydream of an intimate afternoon with just me and you and our homework.. And I could try to help you with yours, too.
Being as though we are in college and we dance wildly in debt from these loans like at that house party on Friday nights, we establish solace in knowing that our intellect, just like out interest in each other is not in vain.
Excuse me, but I’m the flyest woman on campus you say? Well, you know just what to say to put a divine smile on my face. Do you know how hard it is to drag myself out of bed everyday, to remain fly? The sick perfectionism that makes me feel less than some days. The anxiety that makes me judge myself and hate the vision that I so meticulously put together before I even set foot out the door?
You say you love my voice but will you still love me when I'm rendered wordless and I find myself overthinking about the million things that could tamper with this black love..
What if I tell you all of my objections with current state that we are living in? Will you still think I'm fly? Or will you force me in exile me from yo' mind like Assata? And confine me to a prison behind which walls I’ll be shackled to your internet defined version of black love?
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Do you read? Baldwin and Hurston and Earnest Gaines, too? Do their messages resonate with you?
Because, if they do, then you’ll understand that our bond is essential to the preservation off the few pure things this world has left to offer.
What we have is rarer than Black Wall Street execs in 1921. Not in Tulsa, but in New York City… We’re vicious wolves alright, but not for money. Preservation and survival of our endangered species..
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We are trapped in this jungle and through our bond, he have created a regality in this polluted jungle where we, you and I, are Kings and Queens of the Pride. Our pride. Bound to protecting our identities because it may just very well be the only thing that we own. And we pay for it every time another Trayvon gets gunned down and the media manipulate our feelings like those falsely depicted voodoo dolls we see on our TV screens...
You may admire my looks and you may enjoy our metaphoric attraction, but do you have what it takes to understand my mind, black man? Do you have what it takes to fight, like our ancestors did to preserve our love and our blackness?
If only we could see, how beautiful we really are.. we can begin to change this world. One episode at a time.
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