Discourse on how Sapphire got her name

My mother used to muse she was a slave to passion

she liked fornication

liked it a lot

it helped rebuke

disappointments on her timeline

the other women in our walk-up

called her Jezebel

but not to her face

because she’d cut their pretty little derrières

rearrange their bodies with her devil’s tongue

not because I was pitch blue-black like the gemstone

not even because she wanted me hard & unyielding

she named me after Sapphire Stevens from The Amos ‘n’ Andy show

I was never going to take it lying down

Sapphire is not the name of a slave

You could be as sweet as Weezy on The Jeffersons

My mother used to say it didn’t matter anyway

if you was a strong black woman who stood her ground

they was going to find another name for you

like Esther

Florida

Florence

Maxine

Michelle