Homeland

by L

i gaze above at the bottom of a cluster of coconuts
From this angle, below them, i can’t quite see the way in which they’re connected
But i know they are
i know they are regardless of visual confirmation because everything on this island is
interconnected

The strands of the colorful woven hammock beneath me are able to support me through their
support of each other & together we sway according to the plan of the gentle ocean breeze

Coconuts fall and someone’s kind uncle offers to cut them open and prepare them with love

Nature’s water merges in my Caribbean bloodstream

And the same is true for everyone to lay in this hammock, under this coconut tree, with coconut
in hand, to come & in that way we’re connected too

i may never know them
But i know we are
i know we are regardless of scientific confirmation because everything on this island is
interconnected

 

Revolutionary Summer School

Revolutionizing hasn’t been a matter of uncovering unimaginable truths
I’ve always known these truths to exist
Way before i had the language

Or rather

before i was wrenched the language to confront the truth with colonized caribbean
parents
before i was gutted the language to conceptualize and articulate the truth in school
before i was stripped of the language to engage my instincts and ancestors

Revolutionizing actually looks like

holding
feeding
& clothing

All things they’ve

wrenched
gutted
& stripped

Now that i’m here,
I can’t stop
Nor do i want to,
I won’t stop

Please stand back

 

Let Me Begin Again

Talking to you misaligns the gears turning in my head
Gears that circulate one another rhythmically now feel off beat and off balance
Like you’ve made it your business to step into my mind and throw a hinge off
Mothers and partners have the ability to do so they say
that is, push buttons (or throw off hinges)
that the average person can’t

But, let me begin again

I’ve set up a security station at the control center of my mind

Together we ensure our gears circultate one another rhythmically, on beat, and on balance

Sometimes they move a little slower,
sometimes a little faster

But your keycard is invalid at this station, mom

& them gears, they haven’t misaligned since