Thahabu

Part One
I feel like a gutted fish
Organs hanging
Blood everywhere
I don’t know what made me stab myself
What made me carve and tear my insides apart
You?
You love the ugliest parts of me with tenderness.

Part Two
Circles run deep under my eyes
Just like the feelings I had for you
Tears ran down my cheeks
In fact they sped
It was a race to see how much I could cry until I drowned.

Part Three
Talking to you was like going to another country. I hated that country. It tried to rip me of my customs and sacred tribal markings. I barely made it out with my birth name intact. I won’t be coming back. ♦