coral bone

from Boda who survived the middle passage

look

the white dress is a signal

i am back to love you and to breathe

this time the depth is fabric

you will not drown

i am back to love you and to breathe

secrets into your infant ears

you will not drown

this rebirth is for everyone

stories in your infant ears

about whale kin and coral bone

rebirth for everyone

i am home

with your whale skin and coral poems

breath flowing long remember

i am home

a place where we survive

breath flowing long girl, train

this time. depth. fabric.

a place where we survive

take the white dress

as a sign

(Ancestral mother Boda, known in our family’s oral history as an Ashanti woman who survived the middle passage and was enslaved in Anguilla has been coming to me in dreams of wedding dresses for more than 5 years. A signal tapping in to my association of “boda” with the word wedding in spanish. The language of our first captors in the Caribbean. But I recently learned thanks to Katherine Agyemaa Agard that in twi “bota” is is the name of a yellow species of coral. This time I am in the white dress, sewn by my grandmother Lydia, long and layered oceans of fabric. The train of this dress, which my mother playfully holds up, is part of my oceanic training. This is poem is for those of us seeking a sign. And for all of us who need a reminder of what we been training for.)