Music: Justin Brown/Aja Monet
Lyrics: Aja Monet
Skin walking like music
All shades of soul, Earth, wind, and fire
Soft as sleep
Where the sun kneels to worship in an open field of flesh
Skin the color of prayer hands
Of hard work and sacrifice
The color of evening block parties and baptisms
A spade-shaped heart
Skin singing of shorelines, palm trees and dirt roads
Of kisses and whispers
Stretch marks holding wind on my waist
The gift of gold glowing
Shea-buttered scars
A moisturized head nod
A map to a continent, the color of origin
The space between stars
Ancient as now
Rhythm and bebop
Skin
The color of Garvey's star line
Or Nina's fearless freedom
A sheet of obsidian silk
Moonbeams hollering
A spider on a windowpane
Skin
Double-dutching the darkness
A dance with the blemish of blues
Hugging hues of mother's womb
Melanin marching
The color of dreadlocked jesus
Ogun, skin luminous
Cinnamon, bronze, copper
Warm Sahara, hazel, honeysuckle
Cassava, ebony, caramel
The small of the back
The nape of the neck
The reach of the wrist
A thigh thinking of cocoa beans
Skin
I have loved you longer than loving
Glistening still
I have loved you and all your weary ways
Stretched across oceans, tongues, and time