Even The Clouds Are Below Me

Nobody can put the blues inside me.

Nope. Not happening.

These are the days when I say to the world: "Take your anger, your bitterness, your grumpy ill mood and go peddle it elsewhere. I won't buy your brand of unhappiness today."

See, I got a barbell. And I got some bumpers. Which is to say I got me.*

When those bumpers go on that bar, every burden on my back grows some crazy kind of wings and takes flight. Things that weighed me down are gone. Only the black rubber weights sink me now, and still you know, like the sun every single day, I'm gonna rise.

Chest up. Elbows up. Look straight ahead. Face the day. Face the world.

Doesn't matter who's trying to smack me down today. I can't be touched. My spirit is so high that you need extra oxygen to breathe up here.

I got my barbell. And I got me. Ain't nobody gonna put the blues inside of me.

(*Thanks to Toni Morrison for the inspiration of "Sula.")