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Ego Tripping

By Nikky 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 only glows every one hundred years falls

    into the center giving divine perfect light

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

My oldest daughter is Nefertiti

    the tears from my birth pains

    created the Nile

I am a beautiful woman
I gazed on the forest and burned

    out the Sahara desert

    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
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

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

    All praises All praises

I am the one who would save
I sowed diamonds in my back yard

My bowels deliver uranium

    the filings from my fingernails 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 west to reach east and had to round off

    the 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

    except by my permission
I mean . . . I . . . can fly

    like a bird in the sky . . .