Black Reads: Brown Skin Smooth As Butta
Another community written poem inspired by a community member's essay submission on colorism paired with a body butter recipe. This just felt right.
Every time I scoop a ball of shea butter out of the jar as it melts into my hands and I rub it on to my brown skin, I hear the lyrics of D’Angelo in my mind playing “I want some of your brown sugar.”
As I was editing the Black Recipes newsletter Saturday night, I couldn’t get these two lines out of my head. So, I went to the chat, uploaded the image that’s been used a couple of times now, and dropped the two lines with instructions for our community to finish the poem.
One thing I can say about this community, y’all never disappoint when it comes to writing from a prompt given in our chat threads. And one thing about me, I’m going to curate everything as a newsletter for us to enjoy when the pen of the community gets to bleeding on the page.
And, yes, you can bet your bottom dollar that I will be curating all of these community poems in the Blackstack Magazine: Issue 002, because who else has work that’s been written by the collective?
Enjoy Brown Skin Smooth As Butta, written by seven other Black writers from the prompt I started with the first two lines of this poem. You would think we wrote this poem sitting together at the table, and in a way, we kind of did!
Brown Skin Smooth As Butta
Shea butter so gritty yet you glisten on my skin leaving me to feel smooth.
D’Angelo called it Brown Sugar, but I call it…
..like I see it
like Black sand beaches
gritty
but you leave me so smooth
skin like velvet
the crush is on you
Satin and I roll in it
The smell filling my head
And moving through me
Encircling me in satin dreams
honey.
patient.
persistent.
you make yourself known
by the scent you leave to rest on my skin.
Subtly, you cover me in something sweet, something stubborn,
making sure of corner of my heart
is met with you.
The HEIGHt of softness.
Creamy.
Slippery.
The kind that melts at your touch
And leaves a fragrance of delicate sweetness
Like the kiss of my love after a long, hot day.
I call it gold salve from my Mama’s store of white dirt, red clay, and other sacred potions that Earth only gives to those who hear and listen.
I call it home, a key unlocking memories of who I am
You smell like grandmas embrace
Feel like soft coils reaching from my scalp
Tastes like my lover’s neck
Armor against my skin from mama’s hands on a cold day, making me feel protected and loved
…shea butter baby
Warmth.
Your skin feels like silk beneath my body
Covering me
embracing me—it’s tantalizing
*deep breathe*
Hold me
Draw near to me
Kiss me
I need your sweet embrace
I’m desperate for it
Yearning for you
My shea butter baby
Written By:
, , , , , ,Thank you for everyone showing up and showing out for the prompt. I truly love the work we co-create together in this community.
Editor’s Note
The prompt for this poem was inspired by the most recent newsletter published with
on colorism, and she provided us with a body butter recipe. Anytime I’m curating and editing a newsletter for Black Recipes, I’m thinking about how to give the work breath for days after the work is published. With this one, particularly, I knew this would carry over time with the key component of body butter nourishing our many shades of brown skin.The topic might be heavy and difficult for us, but the care of our skin is where our deep breaths can give life into the triggers that arise. Making our own body butter to hydrate our skin and fall more in love with our shades of brown skin, whether it’s lighter than a brown paper bag or darker.
Brown Paper, Brown, and Browner.
We are gathered here today on the front porch to talk about the call that’s been coming from inside the house for a few years now. It’s time to answer and have the conversation about colorism. Not to shame us for the conditioned behavior, but to educate us on how we can decolonize our pe…





I absolutely LOVE how this came together all silky and smooth! It’s an honor to have been a selected contributor! 🤎🖤
What an amazing collabocreation! Congratulations to the smooth-talking contributors.