Akata
by Diamond Sharp
Cotton/Sugar Cane Picker:
Mama
they say at the dawn
of slavery, the Yoruba
would slash rocks across
face to make scars.
When this hell was over
they would find
each other and return home.
But their dreams were trampled.
We are still here,
they never made it.
And Mama
on Haitian sugar cane fields
in creole they would shout,
"An Igbo will accept death
before slavery"
I guess that is why
they fought so hard.
Though,
they lost themselves in
the battle.
Nigger:
she told me her yoruba
was not tainted like mine
bloodlines were not muddled,
nigger
meant more to her.
she could claim africa.
named ancestors kidnapped.
nigger
transcended the diaspora
i said. we both black.
purity is futile.
nigger
is not hers alone.
our black skin
is equal under injustice.