No matter
when
you’re born
you will be whipped in the
sand storm of
seismic colonies
colliding by their dividing
and parching the earth
to bury life
denying any evidence
of our presence
And there is nothing to do
but endure it
because this world will always be
two halves
of the same misery
even when pleasure is the
center
of your breathless desires
the axe of duality
is swinging back
to sever your head
But as I said before:
We don’t dwell here
We will never do well here
in this colosseum
of the ravenous blind
whose destiny it is
to devour
We must fly above the hours
my children
bring our
2 halves
into one focus
or risk riding this train
forever
It is madness to walk
on two feet
divide your days
according to
digestion
We are more than this encasing
we are the breathing
question
the intelligence
that renders
mother’s hemline
draped across the night sky
the stars in her gown
reminders of the sea
where we sleep
and just like her
we can flash our
skirts and vanish
when we feel to be
free
I promise you
Earth is not your home
it is only the testing ground
the tempering space
a place to wield your
wisdom
wrestle truth from fiction
fight for your every
eye to see
But after that
let the dead
lay with the
dead
fly home
to me
Keisha-Gaye Anderson is a Jamaican-born poet and writer. Her most recent poetry collection, Gathering the Waters, was released by Jamii Publishing in 2014. Keisha’s writing has appeared in such national literary journals as Renaissance Noire, African Voices Magazine, The Killens Review of Arts and Letters, Mosaic Literary Magazine, and Caribbean in Transit Arts Journal. She holds an M.F.A. in Fiction from The City College CUNY. But most importantly, she is the mother of an amazing 10 year-old son and seven year-old daughter.