Black Girl, Call Home Quotes

“I met a girl
who holds me
like she is fighting
for me
in her sleep.
If you ever decide to age,
love, invite me.
I’ll retire my bones
to make you tea,
and read you poetry.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“I know trauma uses silence as a survival mechanism.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“I know grace and mercy was raised
by the same single mother.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“Crazy
are women labeled
crazy when you feel
like their rage
outweighs the evidence
of their pain?”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“Momma prays like she’s talking over God, and if God were to talk back she wouldn’t even hear Him.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“Are women labeled crazy when you feel like their rage outweighs the evidence of their pain?”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“The day I died,
I didn't tell
my body.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“And, I know you did not give me permission to but I already started asking God about you. I told Him if He doesn’t mind I’d like to make it to heaven before you do. To run your bathwater, to make you a plate, to turn the TV to your favorite channel, and turn it off, and make you believe you left it that way. And I vow to never open the door for a scent other than yours, and I promise to always remember your scent, and that we’ll laugh at everything that hurt when we were humans, like when we were poor, when we slept on our bedroom floor on Leslie Street, when we only had water and grilled cheese, the moment you said, “baby, I may not have any money, but I got a soft spot, and a melody, and a pair of arms that can rock you to sleep so, what, you thinking about taking a chance on me?”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“Does black girl magic really mean,

"look at how black girl hasn't died yet"

and when she does die,
what does she become,
human?”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“Pac-Man

Maybe Pac-Man,
is a story
about all the endings
you can stomach
in a lifetime,”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“I blame my father for things he cannot control. I blame my father for things he can control but chooses not to.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“I want to honor the silent ceremony between mother and daughter. A ceremony of blood and becoming.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“Oxygen Mask

Today I forgave myself for how I hurt you
I didn't wait for your permission
For if I did I'd still be sleeping next to you”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“When they tell the Black girl she can’t play mermaid ask them, what their people know about holding their breath underwater.”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“I’ve mumbled
between your thighs,
and made up languages
while inside of you”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home

“A mother breastfeeds her son
through a metal fence, while his father
holds the back of his head
on the other side.

she pushes her right breast
through a square,
until her nipple pokes out
of the male-female barrier,
meeting the lips of her baby.

the baby reaches for her hand
and other body parts, the parts
that belonged, usually, to him
before the cages

this baby, eyes closed,
breast in mouth,
reaches

just far enough for him
to know her as mother,

but not enough
to know this
as his country”
― Jasmine Mans, Black Girl, Call Home