20 January 2012

"Birth of Sistella Black"


a new poem, work in progress:

The Birth of Sistella Black
(in response to the question -- "what are you?")

I.

The question, then the stare
I begin with a smile and exhale

Cause maybe you just see a tattoo’ed freak with locs
Or a racially ambiguous, ethnic something or other
But what happens when you hear me speak or discover I am a learned woman
Do I become more than…  my marked-immigrant-colored-body?

I am female-bodied human, Gendered She
Light-skinned, Multiracial Black
Caribbean born, Raised up in Fyah

I am grandaughter of Mabel Sistella Charles and Viola Nixon
I am great grandaughters of Mamas Willabie Black and Mary Burrows Lee
I am daughter of Kim Grace Louise Howard

I am a reflection of my ancestors
especially the ones I never met in the flesh
I am golden light in accents
yellow, brown, red, and black

I am the color that makes some feel safe
I am the underbelly of shame and desire
of what you do not remember.

I am hypervisible yet you do not see me.
I am coming out and up for air everyday.

I am the flip side
the pink of a conch shell
the layers you pull open only to discover
what is silent

I am what you cannot ignore any longer
I am the product of colonial mishaps
and inconvenient, no other choice, sexual relations

I am the sistah soldier in the struggle
rocking your world
disrupting your imagination
fueling your fantasies

I am remaking and renaming myself
I am Sistella Black

II.

I have carved on my skin lineage of meanings
of who I am, making you see me

I have studied and read, written and learned
shared and transformed by, transforming knowledges

I am light and love manifesting conscious vibration
I am blessed, opportunities grasped and ridden high

I am all that I dream of being
sexy and spirit centered

I am evolving and growing
the storm of revolution

I am sister and daughter of the earth
orange moon goddess under sun’scape showers
communing with forests and troubled sweet waters
I am what makes you feel discomfort

III.

I am years of education
I am questioning, critical, idealistic, cynical
hopeful even when there is none

I am same sex loving, bisexual and queer
I am freak nasty, vibrating on high poly-rythmic freak-quencies

I am love dancing and fucking
under a wolf’s full moon
sistah to the night's warm healing touch

I am daughter of Oshun reflecting Erzulie
I am star gazing, moon worshipping, night loving, conjure woman

I am wrapped in histories and herstories
of my people, never forgetting
where I come from

I have done things to get here
you will never understand

I am dark and dangerous, loving and creating
in spite of you, holding the earth, humanity’s elements
spirits close        to me