I Look For You
I look for you
among the echoes
of yesterday;
easy laughter
drifting across
oceans,
tickling ears,
finding ancient memory.
Thorn bush
binding
wooden limbs erect;
arms linked,
pounding our breast,
remembering
the strength
it took
to stand tall.
Ancestral voices
pleading
to stomp earth,
push our chests
to the orange sky—
honoring
the blood
that binds
the diaspora.
Tongues
snap out:
mother tongues,
spirit leading.
Ankles
adorned with bangles;
cracked fingernails
stripping
cassava from stem
under the brutal sun.
Oh, my sister,
we are one.
We hear the cries
ululating through the night,
silencing errant chatter,
piercing revelries,
opening the canal
to claim our right
to go home.
Goodbye, my sister.
I will still look for you
in the communal circle,
pointed sticks alight,
crackling,
breaking the dark—
stories being handed
to younger ears,
listening
to the growing hum
of pride.
