Mothers
A great mother
hollowed by grief
on the cusp
of the darkest
deepest
descent into hell
once bled these words
I will not die today
I have much to do and say
Yet her skin
crawled
under the touch
of raw chicken-like flesh
colonial fingers
invaded every part of her
Mother’s mother’s mother
wanted to cease every breath
send it back to the ancestors
across the seas
where the crumbling bones
of generations without end
lay in gently moulded red earth
waiting patiently for her to join them
spinning through tight years
of unshed tears
she foresaw
her loose cocoa and dasheen coloured children
unmoored
lighter and brighter
each generation
never passing the
paper bag test
her flesh
my flesh
her bones
my bones
her blood
my blood
one drop of her blood
too powerful
to ignore
one drop of her blood
enough to hold
her people
mudbound
in a foreign land
Mother’s mother’s mother
labelled colonial chattel
unwillingly constructed as
the final bridge to our once uninterrupted history
her blood
my blood
so powerful
she stayed
in a foreign land
of sharp unfamiliar pain
she told my mother’s mother
You will not die today
You have much to do and say
Mother’s mother’s mother prophesied
about me
me … an unborn future
part of her
she did not know
Mother’s mother’s mother told them
not to die
to root
to grow old and grey
she told them
to echo
echo
echo her
until
they re-captured
their own light
walked their own path
carved their own history
as she was taught
at her mother’s knee
ballooned by distant hope
she said
reshape you future
with your own hands
echo
echo
echo me
she said
The ever rising sun
bears witness
to her story
keloid scars remain
like flares
through the universe
centuries
of invading
lands
homes
bodies
breaking sacred bonds
like China cups on rough seas
history repeats
yet they continue to fail
to colonise
my mind
for great-great-oh-so-great grandma
stayed
in me
my strong line
of great mothers
stayed alive
pressed paper thin
stayed alive
teaching in the shadows
stayed alive
carving furrows of hope
in blood-soaked soil
Mother’s mother’s mother
who stayed alive
for me
to be
me
We will not die today
We have much to do and say
January 2021
For Mummy - thank you.