Dear…
Young black lesbian
With time your faces will change
With time your swag will re-arrange
With time your phases will cut frames
And in a stint you may look back and even consider yourself lame
In time your life may be taken for granted and maybe even slain
But not let not the perils of this world define you as pain
Dear…
Young melanin-abundant same-sex loving woman
Your fellow black woman asked of her message to you
SAYS
“You grip the knife at the sharpest of edges” [1]
You may be grappling with definition
Because justice is for the conformist
It is transparently visible
That you do not exist three times
YOU ARE
‘Black – visible only in relation to white
Woman – visible only in relation to man
Homosexual – visible only in relation to heterosexual’ [2]
And in protest I declare
That you are the romance to your own existence
The caress to your name kissing the archives of times gone by
So wise up and read
Because history books
Are how you have now become a legacy
Dear young black lesbian
With Faces and Phases anew
Your life has officially been placed on a silver platter
Let not their misconceptions define you as pain
Let them make your fire burn brighter
For to the future generations you a torch bearer
You are a peacekeeper
You are the bread to the builders
Who construct the bridging of gaps between us
You are a heavy-footed spirit
Because your purpose is the motif of greatness
And here-in lies the existence of your life ever so blatant
Dearest…
Phresh colourful(l) homosexual sister
You are the riches that will afford future generations
An inheritance of social bonds
That afford the comprehension of THE FREEDOM TO CHOOSE
This here publication is
Acknowledgement of the barriers you have had to clap through
While beheading yourself
Because somebody claimed to have recognized you
This publication is living proof that your existence exists
There is nothing left behind that cannot relate to you
BECAUSE
“If it is not documented, it means it never existed” [3]
This publication is living proof of your being
That can never be wiped out by any kind of socio-historical amnesia
So fellow young black lesbian
Join me as we Be!
For ‘Faces and Phases 2006 – 2014’
© Christie van Zyl (2015)
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[1] Quote credit to writer Azime Ngubane on completing the sentence ‘Dear Young Black lesbian…’
[2] Quote credit to writer Ziphozakhe Hlobo on completing the sentence ‘Dear Young Black lesbian…’
[3] Quote credit Anonymous
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2014 Nov. 21: I’m cut into two
