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Racial Truth & Reconciliation Week Story: Homeless

  • Our Stories
  • Racial Truth and Reconciliation
  • Trauma

By Chlo'e Edwards

trapped
between

d

r

i

p

p

i

n

g

veins of the red
the white
the
blue

s

t

u

m

b

l

e

d

upon fertile soil
shoveled
plowed
by tenants
of a home I will
never know.

Orphans
do not carry the memories
of their ancestry
do not bleed
the same blood
of their captors.

i crave
cherry red kisses
of a woman
i will never hug.

caress  deep green hills
that will unleash in its steeps
the me that belongs in the his tory
of home.

i carry resentment
i am not the ripe red
the appealing hanover tomato.
i am not soothed by fluffy white cotton
there is no comfort here

i am instead blue
i am black.

Born black in a country
Not intended for me

trapped

clutched
white walls

 

trapped

clutched
black bars

 

trapped

subjugated
black poverty

 

trapped

subjugated
black redlining

trapped

by
hidden history

trapped

will never know
my family

 

i carry
prickly red roses
to their gravesites

s          p          r           i           n          k          l           e the petals
all over the world
for i cannot find you.

i carry Whiteness
for i am the deep green hills
i am the red in the blood that was                   s

h

ed

 

i am the plump sour of the hanover tomato
i am the s t r e t c h e d cotton
the white fog hovered
over the top of each mountain
i am the bruised
an intermingling
of a society that
once
was home
but is now loss.


Go back to the main page #RTRW2020 Page. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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