Patience Agbabi

Patience Agbabi Poems

Patience Agbabi Biography

Patience Agbabi (born 1965) is a British poet and performer with a particular emphasis on the spoken word. Although her poetry is hard-hitting in addressing contemporary themes, her work often makes use of strong formal constraints, including traditional poetic forms. She has described herself as 'bi-cultural' and bisexual, and issues of racial, sexual, and gender identity are important in her poetry.)

The Best Poem Of Patience Agbabi

Skins

It's not like you don't turn me on.
Every time you walked past
I thought, She's fit.
Come-to-bed eyes.
We both want to
feel my skin

against your skin.
It's not like you're on
or I'm changing into
a woman. It's my past.
Look into my eyes.
I just wanted to fit


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in. A misfit.
Mixed race but light-skinned,
brown hair, blue eyes,
bootboy with a hard-on.
I passed.
I had to.

Then I got this tattoo.
I did it in a fit
of rage. It soon passed.
You want to read my skin?
Whatever turns you on.
I closed my eyes

and put my soul on ice,
denied a black dad, too
terrified to let on.
I wore the outfit,
marched with the skins.
I don't like to talk about the past,

I hate my past.
My big lie reflected in their eyes,
their hatred in my skin.
With this tattoo
I'm a walking Photofit.
That's why I keep my clothes on.

It's past midnight. I'll call a cab if you want me to.
But your eyes know how to fit
a condom like a second skin. Come on…

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