a cotton dressed poem

by Natasha Ismail

 

yes, Oupie i’m writing you a poem

with no words what rhyme

with no fancy punctuations

no putting on aires

just

a cotton dressed poem

 

because you made me big from small

sewed the deep lines from your face into me

your coffeed fingers

showed me how to make my tie for school

the stinging lessons your calloused palms

etched into my action

made me a good man in a storm

 

the lighthouse in your eye humbles me

my stubbornness subsumes to nothing

but your sober word

nothing breaks me open

like your vermicelli smile

the Reconciliation of your history is my buoy

your struggle

my dam against the world

 

i wonder Oupie

if you will ever see me be

what i want to be for you

 

but i was

am

and will always be

your daughter

 

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Natasha Ismail

Her philosophy is in alignment with her work as event coordinator and grant writer for Fertile Ground, a non-profit organization addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic. “We must collect the memory of the ancestors for posterity.”

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