Convince Me

Convince me
That you are worthy
To exist in my space,
Proving that you are not
Another brother with a cute face.

Convince me
That you are man enough
To stand by this woman,
Not a little boy
In grown folk’s clothing.

Convince me
That I am the queen
You’ve been waiting for
And that you’re not another hoodie
Looking for a hood rat
To be birthing your babies.

Convince me
That I don’t need
Diamonds and pearls,
What I would find in you
Is worth ten times
Those baubles and glass.

Convince me
That you see the God in me
And that you want to show me
The God in you.

Convince me
That you are the man
Who would stand beside me,
In front of everyone we knew,
Professing your love for me.

Convince me
That you will protect me
From everything and everyone
Who would hurt me,
Even if everyone
Includes me.

Convince me
That in the beginning
And the end,
I am you one and only
With no talk of women on the side.
You are allowed to make mistakes,
But your mistakes should never
Become habits.

Convince me
That you are man enough
To be the father of my kids,
Showing them how a real man
Loves a real woman.

Convince me
That if we had something,
It would be a relationship,
That it would be the real thing,
Not two people playing house
Waiting for something better
To come along.

But if you can’t convince me,
You better be on your way,
Because I’m not going to
Waste any more time on
Another trifling brother.

But if you can convince me
Of most, if not all these things,
I am willing to convince you
That I’m worth keeping.


A couple of days, my grandfather passed away and that evening I assessed the womenfolk of the family and I saw an underlying similarity. Now when I saw womenfolk, I’m talking about blood relation to my grandfather. What I noticed is that all of them were not in a strong relationship, so I assessed my own life and realized where I fell down in that area.

My grandfather didn’t have his father in his life and as a result he never received love from a father. He also didn’t know how to give that love; as a result my father didn’t learn how to give that love. We all know about the idea of Daddy’s little girl, but we don’t realize it is by being daddy’s little girl that we know that we are princesses, that we are of value. Take away that, and we grow up to be women who don’t know our value and take up with any old, no good man. Just give us a little love and we hold onto it like it is a million dollars.

In a couple of weeks, my grandfather’s remains will be put to rest, and at the grave yard I’m going to leave all those negative beliefs. The poem above is my anthem, I want a man to convince me that he is worthy of me, because I am worthy and if he can’t convince me, he can run that game some where else.