one of my poems that has just been published in Black Renaissance Noire (Volume 9 Issue 1)!!!
I am very excited and feel honored & humbled to be in this outstanding publication, and in this issue, which includes amazing writers and poets I greatly admire like Joy Harjo and Elizabeth Alexander! I still can't believe it... I am also reading at the "Winter 2009 Issue Release" on Friday, April 17th, along with Anthony Barboza, Tara Betts, and Monica A. Hand. I'll be sharing this piece and a few others :) Will report on the reading after Friday...
I am, we are, speak
by Angelique V. Nixon
we are home
we are migrants
we are born on islands and lands
touching the Caribbean Sea, mixing Atlantic & Pacific oceans
we are born away, in foreign, we are hyphenated abroad
crying from London to Toronto and Miami to Brooklyn
some of us can leave, some of us can’t
some of us don’t want to leave
some of us have to leave
some of us return home, some of us don’t
some of us can’t return
though we dream
we come from different backgrounds and places
we are spiritually religious, but some of us are spiritually driven
we have built bridges over/seas with cardboard and duct tape
we have invented languages out of clashes and drums
we have culled families out of many races and mixtures in/between
we are many cultures, many languages, many people
we accept each other (do we?)
we celebrate and love deep
we cry and laugh loud
we are oceans of highs and lows
we are people, rippling beyond/inside home
but we are not all the same
so when you cut your eye at me, turn your back,
or raise your fists in hate, rejecting my body
when you see my female hands touching her shoulders
my fingers lingering, along her back, a second too long,
you have already heard stories about me
my “lifestyle,” you suck teeth and shout “sissy”
remember I told you
that I love you anyway
I hold open your eyes with my pen’s light
I embrace your fists with my third eye’s alliance
I do not threaten you
I do not hate you
some of us are not straight
some of us are queer
some of us are gay and lesbian
some of us are bisexual
some of us are same-sex loving
some of us are transgender and gender defying
we can be silent no longer about all that we are
we can be silent no longer about all that we are not
and the in/betweens trouble boundaries
these must be spoken
4 comments:
I can't say it enough...I am sooo proud of you! Keep doing ya thang!
That is soooo cool. I am so proud of you. Congratulations!!! Hugs and kisses from Zambia.
this piece is so cool...
it makes me think of discussions i would like to have about the freedom of movement as a human right...
among other things, the freedom of movement, like giving yourself permission to change, to transition, to transform, to move away from and return to....
Chapeau Angelique, you've done it again! Indeed, 'we can be silent no longer about all that we are', "we can be silent no longer about all that we are not'. Breaking the silence is maybe scary at first but with time liberating for everyone. It's the only way to grow and really be free, really be yourself. And isn't that the key to happiness, which we all pursue? xoxo S
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