"Ego Tripping"

Ego Tripping

Nikki Giovanni

I was born in the Congo

I walked to the fertile crescent and built the Sphinx

I designed a pyramid so tough that a star

that glows every one hundred years falls into

the center giving divine perfect light 5

I AM BAD

I sat on the throne

drinking nectar with Allah

I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe

to cool my thirst. 10

My oldest daughter is Nefferttiti

the tears from my birth pains created the Nile

I am a beautiful woman

I gazed on a forest and burned out the

Sahara Desert 15

With a packet of goat’s meat

and a change of clothes -

I crossed it in two hours

I am a gazelle so swift -

so swift - you can’t catch me 20

For a birthday present when he was three

I gave my son Hannibal an elephant -

He gave me Rome for Mother’s Day

My strength flows ever on

My son Noah built new/ark and 25

I stood proudly at the helm

as we sailed on a soft summer day

I turned myself into myself -

and was Jesus!

men intone my loving name 30

All praises - All praises

I am the one who would save

I sowed diamonds in my backyard

My bowels deliver uranium

the filings from my fingernails 35

are semi-precious jewels

On a trip north I caught a cold and blew my nose

giving oil to the Arab world

I am so hip - even my errors are correct

I sailed east to reach west - and had to round off the 40

earth as I went

The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid

across three continents

I am so perfect, so divine, so ethereal, so surreal

I cannot be comprehended 45

except by my permission

I mean ... I ... can fly

like a bird in the sky ...