I Am (With Music) Poem by Titilope Sonuga

I am
gap tooth black girl
back corner of class
scribbling left-handed
poetry on blank paper
save the school's
curriculum for later

I am
overflowing tales by moonlight
trickling off the tip
of my grandmothers tongue
you will find my mother
tongue here

fast and fluent Yoruba
criss crossing English
hidden messages in
prose and proverbs
call it Yorubanglish

I am
the miracle of melody
nestled deep in the groove
of rich hi-life rhythms
a child
of the marriage
of hip-hop and afro beats

you can hear our voices
pulsing beneath the skin
of a talking drum
commanding hips to move
without caution
but caution
this is where a woman is born
where she learns the infinite
connection between her waist line
and the baseline

I am
sky high gele
bold and beautiful
meets stretch skinny jeans
we redefine style
wear our stories around our necks
and from our ears
so we never forget
the voices of ancestors

I am
what they never
taught you in history books
legacies of age old traditions
incantations of ancient griots
a nation of story tellers
the beautiful and the broken
the struggling and the surviving
the ones they said
would never make it

this is who
I am