A Black Experience

I can’t wait to get Home

to Shake off the Tokenism

and Bathe again

in My Blackness

Unfiltered

 Submerged

to Impermanently Dissolve

the Brace

that hold my parts

Still

Frozen

Silent

Smiling as I Dissociate

from the ‘nobody did anything to anybody’

 Whiteness

Privilege

Burdened by a colonial history

Impossible to disown

And a knowing

that no matter how it’s spun

NO MATTER how it’s spun

Something WAS done

that when triggered

 leaves my stomach TIGHT

with careful hypervigilance

and DEEP somatic resonance

SOMETHING WAS DONE

But it wasn’t me who did it!

Written by Valerie Gage

This poem has been copyrighted and cannot be used without Valerie’s expressed permission.