Motherland

Motherland Journeying into the unknown Journeying into a deep soil Into a trunk, which has been uprooted and stripped of its branches Removed from its natural soil and thrust in cold and bitter climate Of an unknown land Motherland We have come We have survived We have come to embrace our motherland Motherland Forgive me if I don’t understand Nor speak my mother tongue For we have been away for too long Forgive me if I don’t answer when you hail at my name For the name mista smith gave me Has a different tone, an unfamiliar beat To the name you persistently call me with Like a frightened mother who screams for her lost child And only to hear the echoes of her own voice We were stolen Captured like hunted antelopes Only this hunter had no love We were herded of onto a boat And shipped of to an unknown destination A land that had no sunshine A climate that was so cold it cracked my soft skin And offered no shea butter to grease my cracked wounds Motherland Forgive us if we do not bear our tribal marks Forgive me if my hips do not move ceremoniously to the drumbeat For I’m of mixed breed Part British and Part Spanish I am a descendant of a slave girl A property that mista smith could enjoy a t his own convenience A property that he could explore Benefits of hips, and my upright breast And the rhythmic of my waist-beads Motherland RAPE I heard you cry out RAPE I cried back Motherland I was your untouched child But I became part of mista smith property Part of his wealth and livestock And a property cannot be raped Motherland Hush, do not weep For we have survived, we have journeyed home