Beloved Chicago poet Leslé Honoré has released a new poem about Meghan Markle following the spellbinding interview done by Oprah Winfrey on Sunday. 

Published in USA Today, Honoré’s poem tackles the racism Markle faced personally and the bigotry she had to deal with around her newborn son.

Honoré said she wrote the poem as she watched the interview:

“No matter how gentle the Black

How light the skin

How gorgeous the face

How talented the soul

How pure the intentions

They will not protect us.”

“No matter how innocent the life

How secure the birthright

Titles will be stripped

And babies tossed to wolves

Because of a fear of Black skin

They will let a woman drown

In their lies.” 

The poet, hailing from Chicago, calls herself “Blaxican” and became well known for a groundbreaking poem about Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The poem has been lauded by many as capturing how it feels to watch Markle struggle with her husband’s family. 

“The why is obvious/The why is consistent/The why is always the same/Black,” Honoré wrote.

She then goes on to laud Markle for her resilience. 

“Catch this #BlackGirlMagic

Catch this brilliance

Catch this happy

Catch this radiance

That not even 1200 years of hate

Can kill.” 

Honoré spoke to The Chicago Tribune about the interview and her poem, noting that she watched it with her daughter along with millions of others on Sunday night. 

“My daughter and I watched it, and we were screaming and hollering and throwing stuff and pressing pause. I was writing as we were watching. It is live tweeting with poetry, every new salacious thing I was like, ‘Oooh, gotta include this.’ My poems are always a purging of my own emotions, a protest to what anybody might say,” she said. 

“We just cried for Meghan. It hurt our hearts to know what she was experiencing” — the experience of being a mother of color whose children will always be seen as Black first and therefore overlooked, not supported or seen as other. It was heartbreaking. And then it was jubilant. It was: ‘You can’t break us. Our very DNA has been surviving this and more for our entire history,” she added. 

Honoré did not hold back in explaining what parts of her poem meant, noting that the British Empire was the root cause of “the world, the nation, the globe’s legacy of colonialism, of Black hate, of colorism, of enslaved people.”

But she added that she has a fascination with British royals due to her fondness for Princess Diana and other women who have faced troubles with the royal family. She said that some of what she saw Diana go through resemble struggles she faced in her own relationship. 

But Markle’s tribulations prompted Honoré to pen the moving poem, where she celebrated her ability to overcome struggles. 

“This World Woman

This Global Majority

Catch all of this

Unbreakable

Blackness

She doesn’t need your titles

She has always been a Queen.”