Issue 3: Who Gets to Belong?

“You’re So White”

Poetry

My melanin is not enough to hold my culture.

By Kayssie K of the Royal Integrity collective in response to Afua Ansong’s poems.

My melanin is not enough to hold my culture.
My tongue has betrayed me between its spills,
Now I’m a new shade of grey
That no one understands.
I am a culturati,
Denied of her passion
Perhaps, I lack rhythm,
My being no longer holds the buzzing hums of my ancestor’s hymn.

My lips have sold their own brother
Like the sons of Jacob,
Now I wear the coat of many colours,
Disdained of my own.

This is a sciamachy —
That my skin cannot conquer.
I will never be
right kind of
Earthy —
To belong.


Edited by Joyce Chen.
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