DIRTY STINKY TYLER GIRLS

LIKE YOU NEEDED THREE OTHER NAMES

BESIDES, YOUR BIRTH NAME.

WHY WAS OR MISFORTUNE OF POVERTY THEIR

FORM OF AMUSEMENT,

WHAT DID IT MATTER, WE WERE THE DIRTY STINKY

TYLER GIRLS.

AS IF, WE LIKE THEM WAS JUST KIDS; POOR KIDS WHO LIKE

ANY OTHER CHILD MADE DO WITH WHAT THEIR PARENTS HAD.

MAY NOT BEEN THE BEST OF, BUT IT’S ALL YOU HAD.

AND FOR THIS WE BECAME,

THE DIRTY STINKY TYLER GIRLS

AND GIVEN ANOTHER FORM OF MEANNESS

FOR BEING LESS FORTUNATE,

THEN THEM.

TO REMIND YOU EVERYDAY THAT YOU WERE POOR,

DIDN’T HAVE ALL THE ADVANTAGES THEY DID,

AND SOMEHOW THEY WERE BETTER THAN WE WERE.

NOT KNOWING THAT WE WERE RAISED TO KNOW

NO ONE HUMAN BEING IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER.

THIS WE LEARNED, JUST THROUGH THE STRUGGLE,

BEING BLACK.

BUT WHAT DID IT MATTER,

WE WERE THE DIRTY STINKY TYLER GIRLS.

AND WHAT OF THEIR MEANNESS;

WERE THEY, SOMEHOW; BETTER THAN US?

SEEING IN THEIR EYES,

THE JOY OF BEING MEAN AND NO CLUE,

ALL I SAW WAS HOW UGLY PEOPLE COULD BE.

WHAT DID THEY NOT SEE,

WHAT DID THEY NOT LEARN, THEY WERE NO BETTER

THAN US, FOR

THEY WAS NOT LIKED EITHER, THEY WAS JUST AS BLACK

AS WE WERE

AND PEOPLE THOUGHT THEM TO BE STINKY DIRTY PEOPLE TO.

WHY NOT SEE,

WHAT DID IT MATTER? WE WERE THE DIRTY STINKY TYLER GIRLS.

WHO RECEIVED THIS MEANNESS EVERYDAY FROM ANOTHER,

GROUP OF PEOPLE,

WHO THOUGHT THEY WERE BETTER,

BEING WHITE.

WHAT IS THE MATTER,

DON’T YOU REMEMBER ME

I’M JUST ONE OF THE DIRTY STINKY TYLER GIRLS.

DEDICATED TO: QUEENSTOWN GENERATION OF THE SIXTIES

03/21/01