In a garden of palm and fruit

the Pansies and Snapdragons

trimmed the bedding

my white child hands with care placed

my dolls on the lawn so that together we

could watch the sun and clouds gliding by, then

I saw you

your young black body already sullen over

weed and dirt

the proud mouth concaved

you’re strong back a door

closed from me

always moving away while fulfilling your duties

and as I sat under the Mulberry tree

with my purple-stained feet

try moving closer

mesmerized by your golden hands

I imagined they belong to a Lion tamer

the wielder of a silver sword fighting

Python with Baobab bodies

or a Prince from a faraway land

that I will one day visit and announce

my past adventures with their now King

every day I waited for your arrival

which was quiet

every day I will move a bit closer

for approaching the son of a King was

adventurous and full of riddles

a treacherous path

with rivers full of Crocodiles with sticky long tongues

curled up like a Chameleon tail

ready to grab and twine around my tiny feet

dragging me into the darkest deepest rivers,

with skies filled with hungry Vultures

camouflaged as clouds

ready to snatch me up into the air

to disappear forever into the bellies of their chicks

unknown my quest

you raked the dry and you trimmed the dead

with a dark bowed head

the day finally arrived when I slain all the monsters to reach you

and I was going to grab those golden hands and

flew up to the treetops and lived together

on berries filled with honey

you turned around

black eyes filled with beams of

emotions for which I did not have yet a name

an epileptic drum of words

run and spit from your raw tongue

your hands white knuckled a rock

and as this piece of accusing fossil

comet the air towards my head

birds got still

flowers got shorter

animals lost their voices

toys became plastic

and when my mother tucked me into bed

that night concerned for my tears

she wanted to know why?

I kept silent

for a storm was always hiding behind the

beautiful hills of the Water Mountains

For I know now that something wasn’t right.