Jamaica, United States

poem by Shakeisha SLZL Levene

FROM THE HTSTW LAUNCH PARTY

My mother told me that Jamaica has decided to allow schools to lock children with locs out. On Emancipation Day. Feels like Emancipation from Mental Slavery. Since Schools are synonymous with slavery and sin. Since schools are plantations and have always been. Sugar makes syrup and blood is thick and water is thin. I used to think Progress and Time were a spiral. But THEY are a zig zag-with weird zaga and laps- that zips you up tightly; squishing you and tearing your flesh. Being slowly pushed through holes-in a meshgrid. Gasping for air in a glass container with a closed lid. America says no discrimination based on hair. But theres still discrimination here, and they made it okay there. In a Black Country, but if you come from country and can’t speak you are treated like a leak and a leech. A flaw in the system if you could call it that. I wouldn’t but some people break systems with baseball bats.