I Was Not Created In A Vacuum.

By Binta Yade

this beauty spot on my right cheek

was my mother's father's

my almond eyes belonged to my father's mother

there’s a history carved into my cheekbones

telling of an empire run along a senegalese river

that kissed the atlantic,

every time a tortured soul chose her to be its final caregiver

an empire built by the faith of one

and undone by the hand of some frenchman with a gun

and my nose is slanted

just like the mountains

of a town hidden in the sole of a boot

a town that's been forced to uproot

up north, to live in my mother's memories

right next to nonno's favorite recipes

beyond how far my ancestral eye can see

i’m of worlds completely foreign to me

but somewhere deep in the layers of their soil

lays a place i once called home

my genes are born of bodies,

herstories and histories

from times long gone

and unknown to the living

i was sewn together with the fabric of the universe

& a ball of thread pulled out of the earth

a hand-tailored tapestry

stiched by those who never knew me

but made me

an amalgamation of stitch patterns and string

telling the story of I -

where i’ve come from

where i've been

and where i'll return.

By Binta Yade