A Poem for Lesley-Ann by Ayun
Say It Loud! Poetry Collective (from left to right: Brown, Qwin, Ayun, Teju, Sabita, Zanubia & Julia) To think of smiling as a simple act of stretching ones mouth so as to show contentment that releases the drawn in lines of a frown that was etched onto your brow is never enough. Life drew the lines on your face, with each bout of sorrow and of joy, that lights up the brown of your dark face. And the dark face that hosts solemn eyes protest what the world has determined you would be. You carry an eternity of sorrows, and still you laugh Like the old black people from the country I am from, From deep within your chest, the echoes of that forgotten time, from before you were born but existed roll out from your belly and form a sound of dry branches beating against each other on warm days where the wind blows and whispers all our names. You can never only smile. There is, always, too much in a smile that remembers, always, the perfect ...
