Dreams of Sand

I am the Blackest
I have ever been,
standing with my back turned against
white sea foam, my toes
under eroded rocks.

My father is tinted purple and reaches
through my bones with his voice to say

he fears the storekeeper down the street,
who followed him to his car and
checked the depth of his pockets.

Igbo whispers rush through my ears,
push the tears out of my eyes
to drink from my cheeks.

I am the bravest
I have ever been
when I decide to lay myself,
dead, near the shoreline.

When I let the water grab me,
ankles first
rip me through the current.

I drink the ocean,
bittersweet salt.

I let it weigh my limbs down
to this foreign shore.

I am the Blackest
I have ever been with
upward eyes,
my fingers cracked and blue
in the sand.

———
Poem © Khadija Ceesay
Image: Public Domain Pixabay