1600
By Yew Dale-Green Cooper
This ain’t about flowers.
It ain’t about chocolates.
It ain’t about what the world says love supposed to look like.
This is about you.
The Black women who loved me
when I didn’t even know how to hold myself together.
The ones who saw potential in my pain.
The ones who looked at my scars
and didn’t flinch.
On this Valentine’s Day,
I’m not pretending I got it all right.
I’m not rewriting history
to make myself look holy.
I’m just saying thank you.
Thank you for loving a Black man
who was still learning how to breathe through trauma.
Thank you for standing beside me
when my body was fighting battles
and my mind was at war.
Thank you for your softness
in a world that taught you to be hard.
Black love is different.
It ain’t just chemistry.
It’s culture.
It’s survival.
It’s two souls that understand
what it means to be misunderstood by the world.
When you loved me,
you weren’t just loving a man.
You were loving his history.
His family wounds.
His ambitions.
His fear of failing.
His hunger to become something greater.
And I felt that.
Even the women I couldn’t keep,
even the ones who walked away,
don’t ever think your love didn’t matter.
It shaped me.
You helped me see that being a King
ain’t about control.
It’s about care.
It’s about showing up.
It’s about protecting peace and not ego.
And to every Queen who ever held space in my life,
whether for a moment, a year, or a lifetime,
know this:
You were never temporary to me.
You were part of my becoming.
Part of my growth.
Part of my story.
If I ever hurt you,
know it was never from a lack of love.
Sometimes it was immaturity.
Sometimes it was survival mode.
Sometimes it was fear disguised as pride.
But love?
Love was always there.
Black love ain’t about possession.
It’s about reverence.
It’s about looking at a Black woman
and recognizing God’s artwork in motion.
So on this Valentine’s Day,
I celebrate you.
Your strength.
Your patience.
Your beauty.
Your heart.
And no matter where life places us,
no matter what season we in,
no matter what distance grows,
You will forever be loved
in my heart.
That’s Black love.
And that’s from me.
