I became Black when I was born
On an island in the Caribbean
Where most people were some version of me
So many shades of brown
A mix of textures, features, colours
All Black
Blue to Red-shenky
Our ancestry inked into our DNA
Because though race is a social construct
Scientifically irrelevant, so dem say
Africa is historically, socially, culturally
Part of my identity
From a seed planted in Africa
I grew, diaspora-sweet
And let it be known, IF the trauma is the marker
We endured “hundreds of years of slavery and colonialist domination”
The slave ship stopped here first
They perfected their villainy here
But, this not no pain Olympics—
Mary Prince to Frederick Douglas to Papa Sammy
The narratives tell the tale
Read The Book of Night Women, see the Roots
And stop the erasure of Caribbean Blackness
We are foundational to this
An entire hemisphere of us
As far as that story goes
It was the Americas, NOT just “America”
North and South, Americas
A whole hemisphere
Bathed in ancestral blood and tears
Built with ancestral sweat, steeped in ancestral hope
That their children would someday know freedom
And find their way home and while I remain
Here, remain Caribbean
Every brick of
My Black is non-negotiable