"Ghetto Girls," A Poetry Post

Them girls on Real Housewives of Atlanta ain't no ghetto girls.

Ghetto girls don't run around town in
thousand-dollar shoes
slapping each other upside the head
over some man they
both slept with.

Ghetto girls don't hook up with
celebrities to
get themselves on
television.

Ghetto girls don't
buy hundred-dollar weaves and
accessorize them with
tackily oversized hats and
costume-like
earrings.

Ghetto girls wash they panties in the sink and
hang em up in the bathroom.

Ghetto girls be trying to get they own daddy attention.

Ghetto girls know how to cover up
just enough of the floor so they
don't catch the draft
while they sleep.

Ghetto girls know the days of the store sales,
and they know which Puerto Rican store
got the best candy.

They done stood in front of a
open stove to get
warm.

They done hung clothes on the line.

They'll beat a man before they bow to him.

And best of all,
they don't parade themselves all over the place
claiming to be the baddest,
because they know that acting like that
will get your bag snatched and your
back whacked.

Stop making us look bad in TV shows and
music videos and
talking about us in songs like
we have identity issues.

We start small and get big like
everybody else.

And often times,
we do it quietly.

You wouldn't even know me
if you saw me.

-T. D. James-Moss