Bad Bitch Energy by Paula G. Akinwole

After reading a book by a bad bitch

Watching a movie about a bad bitch

Hearing a song … song by a bad bitch

Seeing a bad bitch order a mocha latte at Wawa

In line behind behind a bad bitch at Walmart buying maxi pads

Overhear a bad bitch telling her sad ass friend that she’s a bad bitch, remember that shit

Get my appointment scheduled by a bad bitch nurse at the gynecologist

After getting my cooch examined by a bad bitch doctor

On the way home, peering over at a bad bitch pumping her gas

And another bad bitch sitting passenger side while her bad bitch pumps for her

I look down at my phone and a bad bitch just text me

She says she misses a bitch and we ought to do lunch

I head to my son’s daycare where a bad bitch hands me my baby, his nose still dripping but a bad bitch is tired and I forgive her

I call my bad bitch on the way home to check in

She answers the phone “How momma’s bad bitch doing?”

I tell her I’m exhausted and sad.

Tell her that I’m feeling more bad than baddest these days

More bitchy than ‘that bitch’

More regular degular smegular than 10 different looks and my looks all kill.

She reminds me of my lineage

Says I come from a while crew of bad bitches

Says the family motto is “Bad Bitch Energy”

Says she tattooed bad bitch on my spine the day I was born

I might have forgotten it though

Through politics, policing, pressure, and the pandemic

That shit put a bad bitch down

She reminds me of my prophecy

That a bad bitch would rise from the ashes of a 1.2 GPA college drop out to a 4.0 presidential scholarship recipient damn near 15 years later

That a bad bitch would suffer grief, tragedy, and loss tough enough to break the strongest man but she’d overcome that shit, preach that shit, and leave to teach that shit

That a bad bitch would be a leader amongst bad bitches and even write poems and books about that bitchness

All day long, I had been seeing bad bitches

Giving flowers

Encouraging her to take up space

And make choices that benefit just how bad she is

Forgetting I was one too

I superglued a mirror on the inside of my eye lids

Yas Bad Bitch, I see you!