Prinsengracht

Shall I say dear kitty when I walk through the house
Of someone who went into hiding when she was just a girl
And died when she was not yet a woman?

Shall I say dear kitty when a 5 year old is killed
Playing with her dolls in the front yard and
Police are looking for a light-skinned man with dreads?

Shall I say dear kitty when the pan-African Diaspora
Is drowned with the son of God in the Florida strait?

Where is my mother who died before her time
Consumed in bitterness and bewildered by her fate?

Where is the sweet innocent in the
Chicken-head who is trying to get the next rock?

Why do we waste the lives and talent of women
Who can’t afford to live behind a gate
And crush the spark from those closed behind the veil
Of ignorance and hate?

On her last birthday the old woman said
From her nursing home bed
Dear kitty.

R. Scardino 7/3/06