In her own words, Audre Lorde was a
“black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.”
1934-1992
Who Said It Was Simple
There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiting brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.
But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in colour
as well as sex
and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations.
This poem was published in 1973 in Lorde’s book “From a Land Where Other People Live”
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Nedicks was an American chain of fast-food restaurants
