Bitter Truths 1: Black Girl Dreaming

By: Janelle Newell

April 26, 2026

I am trying to keep going for the poor black girl in Jamaica who has no dreams of a brighter future

Just to go to school 

And be with her cousins

Here I go when I want to cry

When I am ignored, denied, and rejected

When I want to give up, because why do I have to work 10x as hard?

For the girl with the thick accent who watches Disney Channel to make her voice sound normal

Palatable

So she doesn't get picked on

By the people who will go on to be her boss

Calling the shots on a scheme to make money on humanity if it were humAInity.

I keep my mouth shut because they don't want a reminder

It's easier to ignore how you've been complicit and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Tears fall from my eyes

I used to cry to God, pleading for better

Asking him why he would let us suffer

But the world is nothing if not evil

And it seems no one is coming to save us

Unless it's our white savior 

Complex

Complex

It perplexes me

Why should I believe when we have never been the winners

I am a sinner, but they suck my blood dry

Like the ones who chain me

Drain me

Stuck in this cycle of serving 

Just so my kids don't have to

Which almost never happens

Unless..

I become the bloodsucking

Money hungry

The one with an underground bunker in case the peasants try to retaliate

If I go low, I'll go even lower

Sometimes I forget to breathe

I must

Lest my mother's sacrifice be for nothing

My jaw expands as I yawn.

My bed is my comfort place

When my eyes are closed, the world is a lot less ugly.

If you see this, you must dream with your eyes open

for the broken home, all alone, tear-soaked pillow on a Friday night.