family legacies of unbroken pain
and persistent prayer
made into a single spine we carry together
makes us kin
high-tech language of head nods
and handshakes
translating what the heart cannot risk saying
makes us kin
hands of the constitution never learning
the curves in our names
never tracing the syllables we rose from
makes us kin
how these names refuse silence and live on
our tongues
makes us kin
our tongues familiar with the taste
of hammers and nails
building futures we were never handed
makes us kin
never tasting what we couldn't
make better
stirring breath into history that was drowned
makes us kin
shared dreams and visions
insisting that better is not a myth
makes us kin
shared catalogs of what’s been stolen
kept like family heirlooms
makes us kin
no memory of where we were stolen from
yet every pulse pointing homeward
makes us kin
pride in what we’ve excavated
of home
from the rubble of erasure
makes us kin
pride in surviving what tries
to eliminate us
rehearses our disappearance
makes us kin
Artwork courtesy of our featured artist Ernest Williamson III, PhD
