Casting for Answers

Nylon monofilament slips down my throat

how I wish things were as clear

as you – see through to the core

of me; you bore down and find what?

There’s rot inside; driftwood and murky waters

sons and daughters from generations

awkwardly stuck like spanakopita spinach

between the teeth of two cultures

.

I try not to stare at the elephant

standing where you got off the boat.

Springing the trap of a civilisation lost

you sailed away forever, glancing

back at a past that no longer exists.

.

Now, on this side of history

drop the hook and sinker of your roots

down our throats

hoping we will not forget

but like a whisper mutating over time

we chime distorted truths of your rose-

tinted youth. The past was never as pretty

as it looks in the rear-view mirror

.

You braid microfibres of the past

to feed history into our hungry mouths

we swallow seeds smuggled

from a home that’s yours no more

for they shut the door behind you.

And when the dragon-

fruit ripens in us

you reel us in with a carefully cast line.

But we are jammed and will not yield;

you tug ’til angry twine frays

and snaps

.

All we have now:

Rapunzel rope

stopping well short of the ground.

We fish strands from our throats

gagging on sludge

ancestors lodged

until finally

we

can

breathe

again