Started writing this last year it started out as a poem turned into an full page essay then back into a poem.
Found this is quite a good way (for me) to write as i tend to very wordy. It lets me get all the words out with no boundaries and then edit later...
Pieces
Mixed race/half caste?
Contradiction in fact
Skin white
but heart black
daughter of the diasporas
unsure of my ‘place’
unlike my father
I cannot claim
the turquoise gem of the sea,
rippling sugar cane fields
ivory sands and palm trees
of the West Indies
as my home.
I would like to think it
but it’s an aberration
that has no ground in reality.
from this heritage
but not of it
I traverse the borderlands
at the liminal of two cultures
my authenticity began
in rain washed scenes
the rolling greenery
and jade ponds
of Cheshire scenery
trees a metaphor
for a missing mother
their grounded permanence
a balm
their shade
a sanctuary
then to sunny salford
gritty earthy salty humour
the cruelly casual racism
born of ignorance
squirming
with embarrassment
in geography
at pictures of the natives
when all eyes fell on me
got fed up arguing with people
of only one dimension
blind sided
with no comprehension
of the wonderful variety
of skin hair and colour
that came with my legacy
then Nina told us
we where ‘young gifted and black’
I laughed
when Marvin like us
wanted to know what was going on
I cried
when the Wailers small axe
started a movement
a musical revolution
in conscious music
I danced
then the Steel of our own Pulse
challenged the Ku Klux Klan
institutionalized shhh!
found myself with
Zions daughters rocking
As we wept raged and rejoiced
twisting the two strands
into sinewy locks
had to grow into my own skin
born inna inglan
Yvonne jan 2008

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