Poem #29: A Letter to Kairi *

Dear Kairi,

When your
daughter's
daughter
comes
home broken,
please do not
tell her she is
force-ripe.

That she is an
ole-ting.
That she is
a bat.

Or that her
mother is
wothless.

Do not
tell
her she
is ugly
because she
yells the
colors of
Africa
or India.

Please do
not beat
her or
rape
her or
ridicule her.

Instead,
ask her,
Who did
this to You?

And take
her in your
arms &
MOTHER
her.


* Kairi is thought to mean island and what the Arawaks - the original inhabitants of Trinidad, called the island.


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