VISIBILITY Magazine Issue 02. (April 2017) | Page 30

Sweet like ah suga h, Hot like ah fyah I went home from school last winter And felt the kiss of my country Warm and sweet Yet suffocating She draws away And her lips speak In my mother tongue The aroma of home fills my lungs I step back and I wonder If that Was the only time she’d let me kiss a girl I’ve fought many wars For and against my country Push and pull Her against me Me against her Us against the world I fight wars on sandy beaches Blood stained tourist paradise White sand’s not made for black flesh When you’re queer I fight wars for The right to my native tongue Stolen from my lips By the thief of assimilation So each white body Finds my fire easier to digest It’s funny how home and foreign Can feel so different Yet so much the same What does it mean when America feels home But Patois feels like childhood like I never understand the stories my friends tell me About growing up Cul-de-saced lanes and Kodak smiles 23 ER EMMA WALK