"On Getting a Natural"

This poem was written by my Late Great Uncle Dudley Randall for his friend and colleague
Gwendolyn Brooks.

She didn't know she was beautiful,
though her smiles were dawn,
her voice was bells,
and her skin deep velvet Night.

She didn't know she was beautiful,    
although her deeds,
kind, generous, unobtrusive,
gave hope to some,
and help to others,
and inspiration to us all. And
beauty is as beauty does,
they say.

Then one day there blossomed
a crown upon her head,
bushy, bouffant, real Afro-down,
Queen Nefertiti again.
And now her regal woolly crown  
declares,
I know
I'm black
AND
beautiful. 

~Dudley Randall