Child of the Diaspora

I am Child of the Diaspora

I dream of long Ceruleans rivers , Sienna landscape,  Forest Green pastures and canopies

I dream of kinship and ritual

I long for a place to call my own 

but without my captor 

( I   do    not       exist.)

A product of abduction! 

displacement!

enslavement!

wealth!

power !

and greed

But in the beginning there was love

Love gathered around a fire

Love in the tongue that told stories

Love stitched into the fabric that covered me ,   (only)     from the waist down because at home 

I could be free.

Love in the spoken sound and in the dancing hips and feet on hallowed ground

I long for a time when I didn’t have to perform

The performance is my life

A code switch into a minstrel show.

“Three-bones-and-six-Tambones!”

Like livestock I branded myself behind the ear so they know who I belong to

Mother Cowrie! Guide me back to the waters of my people and the oceans from which I came

Wash away my costume

Let the salt  baptize my being

Submerse me in the waters  

and take me down to my people who saw the death of their freedom in the land ahead of them  

and freedom in the abyss before them

I met a Nigerian family. 

Who saw kinship in me and gave me a new name:

“OgneOke”   

Gods’ Gift

I FOUND MY HOME

(Notification from Ancestry): “You’re DNA results have been updated!”

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