REVISITING LEMONADE (Poem)

REVISITING LEMONADE

By Farah Lawal Harris, 2025

April 23, 2016

Dear God,

please let my infant stay asleep.

And don’t let nobody talk to me or call me

as I tune into—

Wait, is it a movie?

Nah, an experience,

cultural smorgasbord

about Black love’s inheritance

The visuals? Stunning.

But honestly, the storytelling

a lil’ too layered for my underslept,

overstimulated mind to digest.

April 14, 2018

Dear God,

Please keep my heavy eyes open

to stream this middle-of-the-night

musical greatness.

In between moments of drifting

into rebellious sleep,

I caught glimpses of a bold carpenter Bey

dancing and defying Coachella history,

a Destiny’s Child reunion, and an HBCU homecoming.

My inner teen couldn’t stop smiling.

April 23, 2025

I don’t know why I first decided to

watch the Lemonade film with no sound,

but it was riveting.

I witnessed the healing journey

of a human being, not just a celebrity,

moving from heartache to reconciliation.

I admired the cinematography

and connection to ancestry.

On the 9 year anniversary,

I listened to Beyoncé with new ears.

Her previous image of perfection disappeared

as she bounced between the stages of grief,

vulnerability and double meanings.

Is this is what an artist sounds like

when she is free?

I allowed myself to rediscover

the memories of my twenties:

the self-doubt, desperation, and confusion.

In my newfound maturity, I see the following:

All love requires forgiveness.

All relationships require reconciliation.

Everyone’s life hands them lemons—

our experience is

what we choose to make with them.

—

Written for National Poetry Writing Month