By Stanley Collymore
You are the grandchildren whose presence I’m very much
aware of but who notwithstanding that you’re also the
grandchildren I’ve never seen or embraced; have
never communicated with or been given the
opportunity to welcome into this world
we currently share with each other
My biological offspring, most certainly, but that is all it
would appear to be as things presently stand. A very
awkward state of affairs to fin one’s self in I must
admit, and all because there have been no
overtures on the part of your parent, who ironically is
my own natural child that I love immensely and
forever will, to bury the hatchet respective
to our distant familial falling out and
as such prevents you from either
seeing or having anything
at all to do with me.
Of course I shall respect tough not condone this insufferable
action that has been foisted upon you and to which I’m
being subjected myself, as I have no wish to embroil
you in a matter that isn’t of your making; which
occurred long before your own parents even
knew about each other’s existence or you were yourselves
conceived and ultimately came into this world as fully
fledged members of the human race, but at the same
time as an inactive and involuntarily proscribed
part of mine and your own ancestral lineage.
But what you’re presented with as you look into
the mirror of life and unwittingly see only a
white Caucasian staring back at you is, I
must point out, analogous to the
viewing of well sculptured and impressively laid
out sand dunes strewn across an otherwise bleak
and desolate desert scene whose bewitchingly
captivating landscape can nevertheless so
easily conjure up, if one is not fully
cognisant of the inherent dangers
that lay within, the deceptive
imagery of something that
is entirely different from
what it purports to be.
Nevertheless, even the most treacherous of deserts
are known to facilitate an oasis or two, and it’s
to be hoped that in time with a much better
awareness and more accurate appreciation of who
you actually are that the Oasis of your African
and Afro-Caribbean lineage will no longer
be deliberately disguised as something
either to be ashamed of or summarily
dismissed as an irrelevance to be
completely but instead are most
welcomingly seen and fully
embraced as requisite
attributes of your
personal and
everyday
lives.
Assets, not hindrances, to be proudly and conscionably
put on display and, significantly, acting as a reliable
bulwark to stop you from needlessly and forlornly
floundering in a contrived desert of folly and
or insentient ignorance of who precisely
you are. And just to let you know I
shall be that welcoming Oasis
securely located in your Desert
of indiscernment and always
there for you whenever
you decide that
you need
me.
© Stanley V. Collymore
5 November 2013.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem