Coco(nut)

Beside the tree
Beside the chair
Beside the house
Beside the pit
Beside the tree stump
Coco say don’t climb / so I don’t / I sit & stare — my skin coming dark and burnt
They say: tire
I say: brown
They say: Black Black can’t take back!
& I don’t
I learnt to not ask where I’m from
I learn to listen, then not
I’m too scared they gone tell me the things about myself
              I done already buried in the dark
Beside the tree  Beside the chair     Beside the house    Beside the pit
Beside the tree stump         I sit       I sit        I sit        ’til no one even know I’m (t)here
More Poems by Mahogany L. Browne