Burning,
Frigid.
Night and day.
The same sand
That paints on blisters
Under sun’s piercing rays,
Soothes that delicate canvas
With the moon’s caring gaze.
MIDDAY;
Running, leaping, feet curled up.
Floor is lava.
Walking with bridges for shoes;
Sacrificing just the toes and heels
To the million, needle-head, branding irons.
What a sight;
A little white devil
Bolting across the naked earth,
Bare feet,
Sizzling like dough in boiling oil.
Almost melting together into glass.
“Hee! Doomu toubab dui sol daal?”
Heart above my own,
Container of my memories,
Trapped stories,
Boxed up emotions.
A few grains, encased.
Weight of the earth on my chest.
Reminder of love,
Joy,
Peace,
Family and friends
Just an ocean away.
A piece of home,
Tangible
Yet inaccessible.
Smooth, cold shell
Entraps the fiery contents within;
Calm hiding the chaos.
Xol bu sed ci kawu xol bu tang.
Oh heart shaped pendant!
Containing sand from Senegal,
You’re so much more than beauty,
Beyond even nostalgia.
That curved and bent silver wire,
Manipulated around those beads of youth,
Smooth glass imprisons their own,
Like the touch screen that keeps me connected
To the friends whose feet still glide through those beads,
Limitless and free.
Held up to the sun,
The rays shine through.
My pendant is faint.
Not haunted by the shadow of darkness
The moon brings,
Now solid and impenetrable,
A wall of memories.
Flooding the brain.
One blue speck,
One deep ocean.
Patchwork quilt of life…
Beautiful stained glass or old mended clothes?
Takk na la xarit.
“What is that?
Where’d you get it?
Oh my gosh, you grew up in Africa?
But your English is so good!
And you look so American!”
Conversation starter.
Question inducing.
Attracts extraverts
To a recast introvert.
Holds and preserves ancient memories
From a little girl
To a young woman.
Adds beauty
To an exquisite canvas.
Delicate pick,
Ethereal music,
Strumming of guitar strings,
Just like my dad taught me.
“Foo yendu, leek, naan, bu la nekhe, fanaan.”
This plain thing
Is Tinkerbell and Peter Pan’s
Favorite seesaw.
A miniature beach wherever I go
Or a tool to put out a spark.
Bejeweled, bedazzled, dripping in luxury.
This pendant;
A ten carat diamond
On my neck.
Blinding any eyes that dare look my way.
Glinting and glowing
In the sun and moon’s lighting.
My vessel of love,
The suitcase containing all my worldly possessions.
Like every move;
In and out of dorms,
To and from countries,
This house to that,
One life to another.
My cardiac pacemaker.
Keeps this little heart beating,
Pumping life through my veins.
Senegal sand burning the flesh on little one’s feet,
Sahara sand blowing into our village,
An eclipse of sand.
Darkness, like a wall, approaching.
Then, like a blanket, covering.
But no more!
With a few specks on the necks of all,
No more sand storms in Senegal.
With a heart shaped pendant on all,
No more sand in Senegal.