I feel like I don’t take up enough space.

This big ol’ earth with all this space and this right here is all I get?

I gotta get bigger!

There’s an unclaimed molehill over there

Mine!

And I’m gonna make a mountain of it

What about that big empty parking lot over there

Mine!

I’m removing the pavement and turning it back into paradise.

And yes, I’m out here stealing space and pushing my way in

Cause I’m owed some shit ain’t nobody tryna give me

So maybe I should take it

Cause I tried hiring a realtor

Doing it the American-Dream way

Filled out the application, applied for a loan, paid for the inspector

Only to find out that taking up space comes with an expensive price tag

Too hefty for hefty girls

Too white collar for black skin

Too male dominated for womanhood to thrive in

It’s not a dollar amount, it’s a list of expectations!

But the roof is leaking and this bitch got roaches.

I decline to accept the space I’ve been offered!

I shall take more

Stretch my arms so wide that every black girl feels like they been hugged by grandma in my presence

Spread so far than man spreading will be renamed Territory Marking authorized by me

Think of me like jello or like flubber

Not cause I’m fat but cause

When I take up space

all things get enveloped

Like an everything-but-the ice cream

I’ve got enough good stuff in me to be good to you

Some days, I feel like I don’t take up enough got damn space

So I’m stretching myself

Like maybe I’ve got the Midas touch and if you could feel me, you’d know I’m golden

or maybe my fingertips will graze a garment that heals issues and takes away pain

I’m stretching and stretching

tryna take up more space

Damn near pulled myself apart trying to get people to see me

Hear me

Epiphany

Space is but a degree between or above or below

Space is but a limited extent in one or more dimensions

Space is but vast and void, empty but fillable

So what if…

Naw that’s crazy right?

I mean but what if

Let me try

HOW MUCH SPACE AM I TAKING UP NOW?

Do you hear me?

Do you feel me?

Some days I feel like I don’t take up enough space

And my teachers told me I talk too much

And my momma told me to stay out of grown folk business

And my daddy told me what happens in this house stays in this house

But my sound is.

A vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium like a gas, liquid or solid

I can’t help how big my mouth is

Be screaming into the void

Taking up, in, out

All the space

Just reminding myself

How limitless I really am