I was born on December 13th of the year 2000,

the 50th wednesday of the year.

In a dull lighted brick building          

filled with hundreds of luminescent lights.

A hospital named between a cross of the words buttermilk

and net-worth.

31 hours of labor as a 28 year old, black

beautiful, bodacious woman pushes frantically with

every fiber of her being.

I was born into a family of 6 siblings who all

attended the arrival of the final boy to be born

Into the Banks/Shipp family.

Upon my arrival, my mother uttered the words

“Greatness is your destiny” as my father relieves his

anxiety that was strangling his heart.