Do not deny my love

Do not deny my love
Many times I have come
To find that gentle touch
Instead I was grabbed, then stolen from

I was a maiden
That gave to the sun
Letting my skin brown
To take my youth
In return, I aged with my roots
Immersed
Like children swaying in the day
Then content
Under the blanket of the moon

Another time I dreamed
Watching dust rise from
Little school girls’ feet.
Their black shiny shoes
Would not get dusty
For dirt twirled around me
In the day, I laid on a mat
In a house that inhaled
smoke of the road
And the cigarette breath of the stranger
Would exhale into me
With toxic dreams
To be far away
Never miss where I am

And so I was taken
To a land painted white
And I was alone
Flakes would fall like icicles from my eyes
I died in a boxcar
As the speed of the times
Grabbed my soul from the window
Body left behind
Slow as a corpse
In the land of snow

I had a cold, tombstone demeanor
Features weathered
Like engravings eroded through time
No flower adorned my ear
Forgotten, like ancestors unknown
No wealth in heart that shines
Like coppery gold
Because mountain mined
Wearing my dignity upon his wrist.

How far have I come to be taken from
When can I be given, instead of abandoned
I will run laps shaped in circles
Toward the sun
Perhaps seasons would change
With my footsteps
And the minds would gain wisdom
Watching the patterns of leaves
Turn from green to yellow to orange
To a dying brown
Sacrifice for the next again.
The pain not acknowledged will return
To wither the limbs of stability

When can you hear me?
Amidst this story that invokes tears
But do not cry for the heartache
It is our ancestors drumming
To lost dances buried under modernity

Can you dig deep
With our tears tracing the way for water
To widen the cracks to our vulnerable hearts
Waiting to be healed
Because when we hear the unsung song
In my voice, you tremble
It is familiar
As the crossing of borders
Violation due to orders

I sing these words to set us free
And live with memories
That we hold like a burden of truth
A child unborn
We cannot deny this love
Of pain, and sorrow, remembering
The hollowness
Only then
will we
begin
to fill.