Why cry? Just kill yourself..

This summer has been the best summer of my life. I put on my first show at wow, I began what seemed like a promising partnership with a Harlem based apparel company, I finally had time for my kids and work every day, i was seeing an intelligent beautiful woman, and my husband and I were seeming to make strides in our long flawed relationship. So how can all this good be bad? 

I was happy. Finally happy in what I did, who I was with, how much I was making, and where I was spending my time. And then September came. My husband stopped talking to me as much, not something new. So it was easy for me not to notice when he shut down completely. As it stood I barely saw him anyway, with my budding career, his ongoing love affair with his business, and kids, who would notice an extended quiet treatment? I didn't. Just like I didn't notice his happiness that I thought came from us, our family. It didn't. I now know it came from a woman he had met through a business acquaintances at Afropunk, the weekend of my show. The show he was not to busy to help me prepare to put on, but was too busy to come see. The show he later told me was a waste of money because it didn't do as well as I'd hoped it would. Meanwhile in Brooklyn, he was taking in the sounds of some of my favorite musicians while also meeting a new woman. Someone who at 24, has her whole life figured out and is well on her way to being a somebody. Unlike his wife who is well on her way to whogivesafuck. They've been talking ever since. They speak every night, every day have lunch together. She's met my kids 4 times. He has taken them on 4 dates together. From the moment he met her, his best friend and business partner has been encouraging him to audition her for his new wife. And he has. He has lied raking the day to spend with her. lying about being at work when he's really with her. Laughing at me with his friend. Fucking me because I'm his wife and I want it but telling her that nothing is going on between us. And when I tell her the truth, he tells her I'm lying. And she believes it. It almost makes me wish I had a disease to give to his lying ass, just so she could catch something from me and know that I'm not lying. I just love him and want him. And if he's going to kiss me and our kids with her pussy on his breath, the least he could do is be honest about it. Do me a favor and file the divorce, stop sleeping with me, stop telling me how I deserve better because if I did why didn't he give it to me? Why marry someone just to divorce them? Why put me through nights and nights of endless scrutiny just to leave me. His friends hype him up, making him believe he is so right in everything. As of I've never been a good woman for or to him. They like to believe they know everything. Because he's so fucking honest. That he is always right. That I am some type of villain that just happened to have his babies. They, like him, know very little of how I feel. Like how any time I have cried he's told me to shut the fuck up. Not hold me, not comfort me. Just tell me to shut the fuck up. Like how I begged and begged and begged time and again for him to invest some time in us, in his family: but he was always too busy. It how for over a year I worked two jobs so he could stay home build his businesses and his health but can he stand by me the same way?

 What's really funny is that I don't want a divorce. I don't even care whether he had a girlfriend. I just wanted honesty. I just wanted time with my husband. But things are funny, I spend years taking care if him and coincidently when he is healthy he finds a girl that's younger to develop with. Suddenly now that he has money of his own, he's got time for everyone but the wife who worked her ass off for him and our family. Six women before her and now her. All together he's been cheating for a year and a half, I was just too stupid to know it. I'm even stupider to still love and want him. To still hope for a family with him because i didn't plan on raising our kids with anyone else. I'm so stupid that I've already tried to kill myself because I couldn't stand the thought of not being with him and stupider still because I still can see a future without him in it. Stupid because I'd rather die then be without him. Stupid because I allowed him to takeeverything from   me and still want to give him the remnants I have left.  For that I can't really blame him, it's not his fault i'm this stupid. I was never taught that its ok to love myself. It took his hands being wrapped around my neck for me to begin to even learn how to do that. But I abandoned it in the hope of a family with the person I love. I cheated and lied and hoped we had moved on when he said her forgave me but I was wrong and still I clung to him hoping for love. We sat up night after night never making any sense and sometimes making progress but I did it every night because it was for the faith I had our love. 

And now my kids confuse mommy with Ollyssa, they want her to have his next baby and say shit like this to me daily. Yet I am not supposed to be mad at her. Because I can't be mad at him because I love  him too much. And everything I have done  has never been enough. I recently dislocated my knee and spent the day is overwhelming pain while still doing mommy stuff. The plan was to go to the hospital that night. Instead I went to the hospital. Alone. I sat being harassed by a crazy man, alone. Went through horrendous pain of a needle in my kneecap alone. Yet there he was popping in at 3am to see how I was and I couldn't be more elated in my morphine haze because for just that moment, he seemed to care. He seemed to care. The very next morning I was back to not existing because I talk too damn much when I pointed out the suspiciousness of his grandmothers hospitality considering I know she hates me. Just the night before she couldn't wait for me to leave her house, knowing I had no place to go, yet suddenly she welcomes me with open arms because I'm injured? Come on. But as always I'm to blame in this scenario and don't exist for the remainder of the day. I've been so lonely for so long. So alone for so long, I can't even say. Yet I still lied just to see if he'd believe it. Telling him i had slept with someone I hadn't been with for a year. And he ate it up. That's when I knew, he had completely stopped paying any attention at all. 

There is no point to this post. I'm just a lonely, bitter, broken girl who never knew how to love herself. So how could I love anyone else? And why should anyone else love me? When I'm dead and gone I guess I'll know the reason for all of this pain. My father says faith through the had time will bring me an unforeseen reward. My question is, when will my hard time end? And what could possibly be my reward? losing my family? losing what was left of my heart? losing myself? no thanks, i'd rather lose my life. i'm already my husbands side chick/charity case. Every time I think things are getting better, they're really getting worse. I'm just the butt of a never ending joke. Like cosmic quicksand. 

Now that I know how to be successful at death, why cry anymore? Why shouldn't I just kill myself? 

strength/light/love Forming a diamond, muses on life,

my mother says i am strong,
so i gave it to my daughter,
when i wrapped her in my arms
to assure her that i love her.
her four syllable phrases,
resonate responses i don't want her to see
i cant let her see me weak
not again
never again
i won't teach her to be that kind of woman


There are so many days that i wish I could take back and be a "better" mother. But today I recognize three things about myself that no one can convince me different on. 1. I am a queer woman of color. I am different than most and I am okay with that because this is exactly the way the goddess made me. I love it and accept it. I am not evil or wrong because of it. And anyone that chose to ignore this fact, was only making an ass out of themselves to begin with. 2. I am meant to perform. It's in my blood. I was blessed with more talent than I  have ever had the courage to express nor the permission to explore. I will not be detoured to the life I want to create for my family and myself. 3. I AM A KICK ASS MOM and there isn't a person on this planet that can tell me different. I am only such because of my partner. He is the village. While I am relieved to be free of our toxic relationship, I miss him. His companionship. The feeling that you get when you are around a person that you can sit/stand/lay in silence with. An at home feeling.

writer's block

I realize, its been a while since we've talked in a  language few ever get to speak.. in breaths and heartbeats,
it began the day we forgot how to read/situations between lines, tangled bodies lay intwined
under sheets of stars in eye sight
i spy
with my third eye/ endless horizons of you
 ___________________________________________________________________________________

I know why I can't write.. Its because I am afraid.. And I should be creating earrings right now.. I pray that this order isn't a fluke or scam..
I came back to him leaving, walking out the door without a good bye..  the outside air brought peace
definitely time for another shower
glad i didn't run away
at peace with dobeedo & teacher

Never draw a line in the sand...

"You should stop drawing lines in the sand, the ocean will wash it away and make you forget your place" -JSansChez


Its late. I'm sitting in  my husbands house, the house I formerly shared with him, our kids and his family. I want to cry like I have every night for the last week but I can't. I won't. Not here, not now. Not in this place where so many of my tears have already been shed. Occasionally I look over my shoulder, watching ghosts replay the past.

Today while drying off my 3 year old daughter, she tells me that she doesn't like me.  She goes on to tell me that she doesn't want me here. When I ask her why she says "because you hurt daddy's feelings" Because I hurt daddy's feelings... I had to fight the anger inside of me at that moment in time. Realizing that this 3 year old child has no clue as to what has transpired between her father and I. He view is completely distorted by the words he tells her. His version, which in my opinion, is way too adult for her toddler mind. She may have seen him crying. And my heart bleeds if she did. But I get frustrated at how he has began physical altercations in front of her and she sees it as me hurting him. I fear that she will be raised to accept violence and victimization in her relationships in the future because despite what we go through, in her eyes I am the perpetrator. I am wrong. Because in her fathers eyes, I am wrong.

It makes me really think about what I am holding on to.  I think about what I am passing on. Or rather, allowing to be passed on to my children. Particularly my daughter. She will one day grow up to be a black woman. Societal assumptions aside, she's got a lot to fight against. Where will she end up if she already believes she would be wrong for standing up for herself. For exiting a toxic relationship for the salvation of her soul, she'll be wrong. Will she learn the tradition of repression or the custom of expression in her life?  I can only look to myself for these answers. The answers lie in the lessons I am teaching. And since I do not have the privilege  of living with them, I don't know how to be effective in what i teach them. Aside from quitting my job and being with them 24/7. An obscene thought to my independent,driven mind. Not that I couldn't be a stay at home mom, I'm just not built for that mentally. It drives me insane, when I have nothing to contribute to the income & welfare of my household.. Its not who I am.Not that I am incapable of doing domestic tasks, but I recognize the fact that I was raised to be apart of a team, not a single parent. Not a dormat, subordinate, or homebody. I was taught to be ambitious, to go after what i want and to get it. I wish for my daughter to be instilled with the same gusto. I hope she gets my lust and passion for life. I hope she knows her worth, always.

Its nights like these when I get mad at my heart. For wanting a man that is so confusing.. That demands I take responsibility for words while he takes no responsibility for his actions. It confounds me how he can say I don't want to be a mother to my children when he's the one that put me in the position I'm in at the moment. Walking away from him shouldn't have meant I had to walk away from them. I'm all for talking to children as if they are older, it gives them a sense of maturity. It helps them to understand whats going on. But some things shouldn't be said. Speaking to children and saying things like "mommy has to decide what she wants", it makes them think I don't want them. And that is/was never the case. Post-partum aside, my kids are the single greatest accomplishment of my life. They are the only think I have done right, the only people I strive to do right by always. They are the first and last thought on my mind. I break my neck to give them as much time as I can while trying to balance work, a flourishing art career, and womanhood. And they think I don't want to be with them and it breaks my heart.

There's an old saying that goes "never let the kids know mommy & daddy are fighting". Its the only thing I have ever truly tried to avoid. But its hard when your partner is so hot blooded. And me being reactionary,  I fight so hard not to feed into it every time. Lately I've been getting better at taking a breath and stepping away from arguments. Retreating to the idea that there is humanity in him. That there is hope in us. Not in our marriage but in us. Two adults that communicate honestly and openly, that raise their children with love and respect. I don't see why we have to revert to this passive aggressive life of silent hostility because our marriage isn't working. Why all the lies on top of lies on top of lies, just to lay them all at my feet and call it my shit.  At this point, does it even matter?

I won't lie, this hurts. To hear someone who you've loved for so long speak in monotoned apathy, as if you are a stranger. It hurts. It hurts so much to have to let go of the hope I held for so long.  I had hoped that in our year apart he would take the same journey I was on. That he would've let me go sooner. Not because I wasn't coming back, but because I just needed room to fly. As much as we argue about the past being repeated, I always find it funny that he never notices that no matter what, I always come home.

I could go on typing for days but I'm realizing that all this is just meant for me to learn my worth, my wants & my needs. I love him, I want him but it's taken me too long to become comfortable in my own skin. To allow myself to live in truth & visibility. And I won't hide any longer. I won't be silent but I will go quietly. It may be years until we ever become friends again. My only hope now is that we can eventually cohabitate the same space at the same time in peace & love.

Heat & death

Its only 10am, and the tempature is already at 84°. Add in the humidity and it feels 10 degrees hotter. Despite going to sleep (nap) with a great disposition, I woke up late and i'm in a funky mood all because its a funeral involved.
I spent about 20 minutes in bed, eyes half open wondering why I felt the need to go to,this funeral today. If we are still obligated to our family, even when that family doesn't really know us. The person who died was my 2nd cousin, a familiar face around,the house in my childhood that us children called cousin/uncle irving. I remember as a littke girl he'd always come by with his kangol hats on, no mattet the weather, dressed in a suit. The most casual I can ever remember him being was a pair of slacks & a short sleeved button up shirt, shoes & kangol to match. He'd always slip my brother and I a couple dollars for candy or ice creams as he'd make his way down to my grandfathers office. For most if my life, I didn't know what he did. He was just like a mysterious realtive I was told to respect.
Growing up in,the 80's, children were seen and not heard. Seperated from everyone during family functions. There was no time evet, in which a curious child like myself could possibly as questions. that never bothered me, not until it directly impacted my life. As it turns out Irving had served as a tax assessor & consultant. To my family, he was their financial advisor of sorts. To this day the details are skewed to me. Not that it matters anymore, nor do I even still care.
When my grandpa died, he left Irving to care for his estate, which included the two houses we owned, my grandmother, brother & I. I still don t know how but somehow one of those house came into his possession without my grandmother receiving a dime. Then the house of my childhood was sold for way under market value because of a stipulation in my grans will.  End if the day, we all felt jipped. There were other transgressions in my,childhood but those stood the test of time as far as how I arrived at this feeling of ambivilance over his death.
but here's the best part, while standing in the church today, the first time in over a year, I recalled every hymn & prayer from my episcopal upbringing, without even looking at a book. I took communion and felt myself release the risidual anger I've held on to for my entire adolesence. I refuse to continue carrying this into my adulthood, I realized its not worth it. I forgave him. because I am not the child that doesn't know anything at all, its okay to grow up & move on. being resentful, holding on to that pain & anger, only caused me to stay stuck in a barbed wire cycle of self imposed victimization. And I am no longer a victim of my past, of circumstance, anymore.  I have grown into a strong willed, focused, intelligent, sexy, creative, loving, compassionate mother, woman, & friend. I have a family of my own now and my story doesn't have to,be,retold by my children. N

Staving off the lonelies..

My husband and I have been living separately a little over a year and a half now, and i'm just becomming lonely. Not all the time, but sometimes, I get lonely.
Being alone constantly has definitely given me opportunity to develop as an artist. It has been refreshing to not,be kicked in the back/sides/legs/torso while asleep, but it has also become harder to sleep without those little feet. Without god night hugs & kisses, its been rough. At my core, I miss the arms of my little buggers holdung

Everybody plays the fool (sometimes baby)

There is no exception to the rule, so the song goes. i'm finding the same truth in life . Tonight I had a fantastic night and still went home alone. I know it was purposeful because i'd prefer to sleep with people that I also like while sober. I see that my truth is that when I go to party, I really just go to dance. Not pick up anybody. My bitch (beast aka cannon rebel) protects me from entering into situations I would later regret. Like that ackward moment when you try to figure out a way to excuse your companion from your space. I want a person that I can wake up to. That causes me to not think about the cigarette I want to smoke first thing in the morning. 
Besides these parties provide me with all the imagination I need when I get home to have a wonderful orgasm. And really,thats all a girl every really needs. Two fingers and a great imagibation. !

Happy PRIDE ya'll!

twisted sister of faith & hope

Today is another day where all I can do is smile and be happy. Walk closer to the light then the dark. In my sleep I realized I can't wait to wake up because I am living my dream of a peace filled life. I am calm inside, there are no more fires raging, baking me from the inside. I am filled with a different feeling. not worry, not doubt, no frustration. i have no name for this feeling because I've never felt it before in my life. I've never been overwhelmed by it. So full of it that I am confident no matter what happens. I will not worry about how I will pay by rent or where I will live next month. Not that I know those things or have a plan better then the one I am working. I am just calm, no matter what I do. There are times when I think I may regress, be angry and spiteful all the time, destroying everything around me with my flames. But I don't. My fire remains lit, yet still, not raging uncontrollably. A beacon.

What makes me so happy? The fact that I am living my truth. I am surrounded by people who only want the good from and for me. They pass back encouragement, support, advice & opportunity. I find it easier to give those same things back. It's what I want to do. None of them are trying to harm me. And I have no want to harm any of them. I am surrounded by love. Maybe it's the nostalgia of being back in my home, NYC. Maybe it's a renewed sense of being from having 3.5 months to rest and think.

I thought about beginning meditation soon. i think it will help. One thing that will definitely happen is more yoga. It's an impossibility for me to have any excuse as to why I can't make it to one single yoga class, when I live doors down. Hopefully it will become practice. Whatever this path is, I am enjoying it more and more. I am loving the feeling of following my gut. I love the butterflies in my stomach. I love being afraid of what i am doing, and I love not knowing what i am doing. Learning as I go. That's what it's all about right? Learning so we can grow? Manifest our unconscious lives into our conscious ones? Smile, love, laugh, live? Whatever it is about, I think I've found the key.

It's like  that old cliche, walk by faith not by sight. As if this is what it feels like to have faith. Maybe that's what it is. Some good ol' faith with a sprinkle of hope, a side of dreams, and a glass of passion. I finally have most of the tools I need to be a photographer. I am hitting my stride as a mother. Learning as a woman how to balance the needs of my children with the needs of my husband and myself.

I am creating as an artist. yesterday for the first time I took advantage of being alone at Wow. I stepped out into the quiet of the stage and sang whatever came to mind. I said whatever came to mind. I recorded it, and as I go through my day, i listen to it and tweek it. I will continue to check the calendar and grab an hour here and there whenever I have the free time. Within time, I'll have something concrete to put on. My baby will be developed and ready for the world.

I aim to pick up my son from school every day. If also possible, i try to get there early enough to drop him off as well. I am getting better at being there more. Teaching myself to get into their schedule. It's hard when you want to work in time to look for a job, and create. But I'm learning. I talk to Soul all the time, we try to see each other every day. Talking, walking, spending time any way we can. Dating again, and it's nice. Having family days/times. slowly we are getting better. Individually we are growing together. Like those trees with twisted bark. It's beautiful.

Scared to sacred

What i really want to say is I that i am happy. Or rather I feel my happiness materializing. I just have to keep pushing forward. Doubt is trying to creep into my mind and make me stress. Break me down to a scared little girl . What doubt doesn't know is that I am fueled by the fear.
I realized I ran to Vegas because the time was approaching that i stand up and be accountable for all the shit I talk. I ran because i was afraid I wouldn't be good enough. I was afraid people would not like me for my life choice. I would be ridiculed, I would be booed, misunderstood, or laughed off the stage. At the time what I failed to realize is that, it's a process. No one is born great. Every person that came before me had to create themselves. They weren't born knowing or being perfect in their area. And if they were an activist or rebel with a cause the course was even harder. No one likes a rabble rouser, except of course, other rabble rousers.
The first day I felt alive in a long time was when I went skydiving. Seeing the world from that perspective gave me a new outlook. Realizing how small I really am, how quickly life passes, how defeating it is to live a lie or stress about things we have no control over. When I jumped, I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that i only get when i am scared shit less. And I want that feeling everyday of my life. In everything that i do. Because I'm learning that life is way more awesome living that feeling. You accomplish so much more, learn so much more following that feeling. So I now seek to do the things that scare me. For they are the things that push me. They are the things that will help me surrender to the truth.

The Stories We Tell (05.18.12)

today i lied, like really lied for the first time in a long time. i won't say what the lie was but it wasn't to anyone i actually knew. it was to a group of strangers. and it felt wrong when i said it but i couldn't stop myself. and then i continued on with the lie and it felt worse. to the point where i was sitting alone in the street sobbing simply because i knew i was lying and i could not turn back to to truth...

so why say anything now? maybe it's the act of anonymously unburdening my soul. even though it was a little lie, it was big enough to get a lot of attention from passersby in the street tonight. it put me in a position where i looked stupid and foolish. i looked like a jackass. there was no good reason for doing what i did, without giving it away. so i will say there was a good reason but i probably could have went about it another way.  i didn't have to lie, i could've told the truth, which would have left me stuck and i didn't want to be stuck tonight. i didn't want to be a lot of things, but here i am the embodiment of them all with smudgy makeup and a stuffy nose. tear trails down my cheeks and not a soul that cares but me.

lesson learned universe, no more lies.