Departure is forbidden because a thing of beauty can not die, like sleeping spirits, they whisper a lullabye. Shut out what the liars say, they are not the what you once knew. I hated my origins. All save the music that raised me. That's when friends were nice, and to think of them just makes you feel nice, like the smell of grass in January.
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
---And Still I Rise, Maya Angelou
There is nothing left to see. I strain to look at the paintings on the wall but there is too much darkness in the room. It is a shame, for the scenes of my life on the wall are things I have tried to remember, some I have tried to forget, but they are all part of the exhibition. The sun is shining outside the window. If I pull myself together, I may find the strengh to part the curtains long enough to give the outside world a parting glance.