Lundun Needs Love Too

By Binta Yade

(prelude)

tons of bricks weigh heavy when you hit the ground

but after a while feel as light as the air we breathe through clenched teeth

~ sour at first

sweet if given the chance

the city where ‘kill em with kindness’ isn’t an empty threat

smiles attract suspicion

optimism - passive aggression

labels of delusion

you see it deepen in people’s eyes when the days start to hide in the night

who gave you the right to hold conviction?

LUNDUN NEEDS LOVE TOO 

under her tough exterior, London needs love too

she’s spent so long out in the cold she’s forgotten to let her warmth through

so it lies beneath her skin only known to a select few

it lies in the fried fish wafting from aunty’s kitchen on a Sunday morning

or

in the sweats we break in an orange room on a Saturday night

it’s in the block parties on blocks that lay cold these days

and in the 3v3s on Sunday afternoons where men reach for boyhood again

it’s in the hot charcoal we bust out at the first sight of lengthened days

there’s warmth even in our embraces

(they keep the cold at bay)

& when her teeth get too sharp it’s in our homes,

where movies and melodies remind us

there’s light beyond the 4pm sunless sunsets.

the warmth of this city lies in the tunnels we travel

where everyone is someone you know,

you just might not know it yet.

tunnels that span oceans,

vast lands

and epic family histories

histories of parents who survived so

we,

foster children of London could thrive.

London’s a loveless city on road

but full of love in these makeshift homes

families stitched from

cotton,

silk,

string;

mismatched colours all finding a place within

a mosaic

of conflicting stitch patterns and tones

a city

built on broken backs 

and mended bones.

By Binta Yade