Layla Riley-Hill Poet Rhyme

She was an enigma

She was an enigma -
Complex and beautiful in her chaos
A painful hunger consumed her being
Not for food, but for an untouchable perfection
Disappearing was routine,
Yet it didn't stop her from wanting to be seen

She was a victim of continuity -
Of privilege, ego and power 
Of a world still ignorant to her differences 
To a world who still criminalised black kids
She lived a life her parents lived
Continuity was the burden she carried
Not of her bloodlines lack,
But of a world who hated black

Picked apart, she was dissected
Visible but unprotected 
Her life was a series of persistent questions
Not to hear her side, but to reject it
To use her trauma against her
To gouge a reaction, 
To stereotype, to label, to call her 'dramatic'

Her world revolved around survival
Of slipping through systems trying to be quiet
Not from shyness
But to make it out alive to get justice 
To hold the world accountable -
For crimes against her peoples blackness

She didn't want to be a statistic -
Just a girl who lived among racists,
But, who escaped to become an activist 
Whose legacy was a safer place for future generations of black kids

So, yes she was an enigma
But her impossibility carved her a path into a new era

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