I Didn't Know - Poem

Hello friends,

It's been a while since I shared a poem. This was first published in Decolonial Passage in 2021.

I Didn't Know

I didn’t know

when I saw the pale-skinned stranger

it was the end

of Everything

I didn’t know

I had already seen my mother’s belly

jelly with laughter

for the last time

I didn’t know

I’d never again feel the comforting thrum

of my father’s musical bass

as I lay next to his heart

I didn’t know

my friends and I would no longer chase and

play at the hunters

we thought we would become (We wouldn’t)

I didn’t know

I’d never again walk tall, strong and free

Instead, I shuffled, iron-yoked

on the long trek to the door of no return

I didn’t know

the terrible vastness of the endless sea

dwarfing the mighty river

where once I’d played