Ghana: JOY

This poem is about joy

It is not about sea
Or dust
Or dry fruit
Or edges
Or being hung

Today
No one died on the side walk
The street
In the hands of a police officer 
Or man

Today
A little boy played outside the streets of Takoradi

Today
The only time he was asked to put his hands up 
Was to show us how he looks when he pretends he is flying
And
            He
                        Was
                                    Flying

Today 
black woman laughed freely
Did whatever they wanted with their hair, clothes, being

And laughed
And laughed 
And laughed
In a way my 20 years of life has never seen a black woman laugh

Open mouthed, teeth showing, tongue out, 
without underlying pain of ghosts at the tip of her tongue
And I wondered what a cultural experience THIS was

You see
Being the majority in a country for the first time in your life isn’t about seeing other people like you
It isn’t about reconnecting with your roots
It isn’t even about being the majority

Being a majority in a country for the first time in your life
Is about experiencing how to breathe
without holding your breath
Its about being seen for everything you can’t see 
To stare into the horizon and not see a funeral 
After hearing a police siren behind you and not being stiff to the bone

Today, 
They sang my name

Today
It sounded like joy 
no matter who said it

What I mean is
No one dark skinned
Or black 
Or the wrong shade died today 
Because here,

In a country of blackness, there is no color

So black does not echo from my tongue 

Today,
As I passed by a funeral of African bodies dancing for a life that once was in the Ghanaian streets of Takoradi, I joined in and DANCED

Stepped to the rhythm and danced

The wife of the black body that once was grabbed my hand
And danced with me

Celebrating a life that was full and whole and loved and 
That
Was 
Enough

every beat, rhythm, step was a joy I’ve never seen

And isn’t that in itself a cultural experience

To see a way of life you’ve never been let to have

But today isn’t about that

Today 
Is about how the only time people cried was to give thanks


What I found in Ghana
It isn’t food
It isn’t blackness
It isn’t souls dancing in African clothing
It isn’t an Instagram picture with children
It isn’t societal differences

What I found in Ghana is conscious joy in black bodies DESPITE

How long it stayed
How they remembered it
In each other

And wow,
Isn’t that a cultural experience 

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