by Alyesha Wise
You’ve been borrowing me for so long
That I forgot to demand myself back
I found me
Sinking in a university lecture hall
Feeling all momma I made it
All hands raised
Eagerly submissive
Begging for a seat at a table I set
Who lent me to you anyway?
Was it my mother?
Naw
Was it the back door?
Did you arrive on a night when we were flying with each other in our sleep?
Did you pretend you were the wind?
How many scriptures did it take to bewitch us
To smother under your wing?
Where is your home?
Can you point to it on a map with a bloodless finger?
Say, This is where we the shot the Healer
The Umi and child
The Descendants of the gold complected with Sun for feet!
Oh, the pain of being a surrogate to some trifling dog
Giving birth on a laboratory table
Presenting It to your parents
Watch It chase its own tail
Sniff and hunt
Blame the hunted for the reason we feel like prey
After the capture
How long did you think it would be before we would collapse
After the bleeding
How long did you think it would be before we would attack
We are not a burning people
Must you set flame to another black body to overstand
We are a root kicking its way through tainted soil
We are the soil
Kicking its way to become its Self
Certainly,
If we left this place
Do not be mistaken It would be the sirens that sent for us
To leave you here.
Starving
With nearly no one left to eat
But each other.
Alyesha Wise is a published Poet, Teaching Artist and TEDx Speaker currently residing in LA. A 2014 Hollywood Grand Slam Champion and a member of the 2014 and 2015 Hollywood Slam Teams, she is a 2-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist, a 2-time Philadelphia Grand Slam Champion and Assistant-coach of the Get Lit Youth Slam Team. Some of her additional highlights include, but aren't limited to, a 2012 interview with Film Director, Ron Howard, an artist feature in the Google Interstellar Project and being told by co-founder of Essence Magazine, Russell Goings, "In All, You Are Awesome."
