Sweet Like Honey, Bitter Like Truth

 Poetry: Literary Liberation

“Sweet Like Honey, Bitter Like Truth (Please Don’t Lick the Poem)” by Ruben Camp White

A honey tongue can be so sweet,

dripping kindness like it’s on sale,

two-for-one compliments

stacked neatly beside the civil rights aisle.

But sweetness is a tricky thing.

Ask any bee.

Ask any Black grandmother

who’s watched a smile lie to her face

while a law stole her breath.

Sometimes the sugar-coating

is just camouflage,

a velvet curtain hiding

a brick wall painted “Be Patient.”

And Lord, how they love that word.

Patience.

As if justice were a bus

running fashionably late

since 1619.

Still,

we rise with our messy, marvelous minds,

trying to stay sane

in a world that gaslights us

with a grin so polished

you’d think it majored in Dentistry.

We laugh anyway.

Because humor is our armor,

our medicine,

our protest sign written in crayon

by a child who already knows

the world is watching

but not always helping.

We speak anyway.

Because our voices are drums,

and drums don’t apologize

for being loud.

We hope anyway.

Because hope is a stubborn tenant,

it refuses eviction

even when despair

keeps banging on the door

like a landlord with no soul.

So let the honey tongues talk.

Let them drizzle their pretty words

like syrup on a burnt pancake.

We’ll keep walking,

singing,

laughing,

fighting,

because our truth

isn’t sweet.

It’s strong.

And strong lasts longer.

#Poetry #LiteraryLiberation #RubenCampWhite #Truth #Resilience #Justice #SpokenWord