Stone Soup Servings is a regular series for Oddball Magazine that features upcoming performers at Stone Soup Poetry, the long-running spoken word venue in the Boston area that has partnered with Oddball Magazine. Stone Soup Poetry now meets from 7-9 p.m. every Monday at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery’s new location at 541 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square Cambridge, Massachusetts. The open mike sign-up at 6:30 p.m.

This Monday, we end the summer with the debut of young performance poet and dancer Petrina Skyy. Read her work below and take part as we continue to debut new talent at Stone Soup. Thank you for continuing to support Stone Soup and its talented performers.

 

Black woman in your 20s:

Finding humanity through love
Feels like a double edged sword
They begin to acknowledge your womanhood
But you wonder
Is it because it is paired with his manhood
Your femininity
Placed on a platter and served to all in close proximity
You don’t know whether to
Love this fact, for you finally seem to be given empathy
Or hate it
Because now, it feels oppressive in a different way
Black womanhood, in your 20s is confusing
You don’t want to be the “strong independent black woman”
stereotype
Thoughts of a future family flicker in your mind time to time
and that can’t be attained if you don’t submit to a man.
But now, it seems you’ve hit the other side of the spectrum
While learning how to be
With someone
Too needy, too dependent, not strong enough
But you can’t tell which you prefer
The stereotype or the anomaly
Both hurting you the same
Two sides of yourself fighting
To make progress
You don’t really mind if people
You just met consider you weak
During this love-learning process
I guess It means your doing it right
But at this stage, at this age
Independence is required for survival
But when I am, if I am
Will he still treat me with kindness
Will he turn his cheek and assume
I can do it all
That I don’t need him

I can do it all
But I do
Want
To need him

I think, I might need him

It’s okay to need him
It’s okay to need myself

Black womanhood
Is confusing
In your 20s