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.

Photo Credit: @sweetlikeoyin on Instagram

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!

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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:

koya moore

,

Rhea Daniel

,

alysa l’se

,

Orchid Blaze’s Shadow Journal

,

Netta Fei

,

Rachael T

,

Becoming By Grace

Thank you for everyone showing up and showing out for the prompt. I truly love the work we co-create together in this community.

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Editor’s Note

The prompt for this poem was inspired by the most recent newsletter published with

Rev. Evelyn Bourne (Ambilike)

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.