In the home I grew up in
my mama used to tell me all the time
money will never buy me happiness
But everything bought with money sho made me happy.

She ain't never bought me nothing like that
But she always found time to buy me what I needed
Damn what I wanted
What's the story of a black kid
A black girl

I couldn't scar my knees and I couldn't jump fences with the other boys
My nails had to be trimmed on a schedule
My hair fluffed
On Sunday I had to wear a dress
And it was never the one I wanted to wear
And in school I had to sit
pay attention because I won't be told twice

I didn't have the option to run.

Running around like the rest
Before the streetlights let on
I better had been inside
And the day I grow from this girl into a woman
My legs are now the thing I have to hide
When I was a kid my mama had told me,
Daddy used to say it too:
Children are meant to be seen and not heard.

But now that I am growing
I'm looked at by everyone.
Seems like I'm noticed by everything
Can't take a step
or move an inch
Without catching a whiff of my natural perfume.
Like I walked under a spotlight and it follows me so
The embarrassment that I feel from the swelling in my chest won't slow

Mama said it ain't for everyone to smell.
Like it ain't for everybody to touch
For no...