Tattoo reads, “When words become inadequate, I shall be content…
Tattoo reads, “When words become inadequate, I shall be content with silence”.
There are words waiting: a poem
My fingers, pink side up
Hold stories made of gestures,
Signs and twirls.
The whorls
Of each fingerprint start a chapter, a Sign Language tale.
Violence made me mute when I was younger;
It still returns as an adult - the silence
I surrender
To a fractured part inside my soul.
Another name, another author
Of my life takes hold.
And when I stare at my palms, the lines,
So fractured, divides
Into several paths, many lives
I have carried:
A library of personalities tallied.
My fingers move, my body remembers
Trees towering above me
And a book burning
As another part of me rises from the embers.
I wrote the poem below for MancuniCon, the U.K. Easter sci fi…
I wrote the poem below for MancuniCon, the U.K. Easter sci fi convention. I sadly experienced a few racist incidents whilst at this event, as I do most places I go. However, when I wrote this poem, I thought about how white science fiction and fantasy is in general, and how the possibility of people of colour inhabiting a fictional space makes so many defensive unless we are subservient to white folks. The poem is inspired by my all time fave episode of any Star Trek series, Far Beyond the Stars, on Deep Space Nine.
Jake Sisko
I don’t want to be the only black soul in space
I don’t want to break through the atmosphere
I don’t wanna blast off to an unknown place
I want to stay right here
Cos if black folks board those rocket ships
Ain’t nothing new it gonna prove
Cos all they really want us for
Is to shine those white folks shoes
You may say a brave new world’s waiting
Where a man can truly be free
But this black soul be contemplating
This here world and the racist cruelty I’ve seen
Freedom don’t come beyond the stars
I won’t find it way up there
Freedom means stories of my own
Where black folks sit in the captain’s chair
And ain’t it sweet you imagine aliens
Being red and blue and green
But black folks in sci-fi are impossible
Too unbelievable to be seen
That’s why I choose to write what I do
Black fantasy is why I’m here
Far beyond the stars may look good to you
But son, I ain’t got the fare
No such thing as invisible,Only just erasure.Biphobia and racism…
No such thing as invisible,
Only just erasure.
Biphobia and racism inexcusable;
My mental health’s in danger.
Apologies do no good to me
When I’m the target of violence
And you choose to ignore my cries;
The voice I have is silenced.
I am standing right beside you, see?
Bisexual, black and nonbinary.
I am also part of LGBT
Don’t pretend that you can’t see me