that (sweet)song of cassava hips
when your cassava hips wanna dance
to your own (drum)beaten (sweet)song,
let ‘em shake, let ‘em sway and fight
those who try stealing your sweetness,
spreading you on toast like mango jam
to spit you out, ignorant of your flavors
when your cassava hips wanna dance
to your loud (drum)beaten (sweet)song,
let ‘em salsa and rumba because yours
is a radiance, a sweetness, a swagger
that will not be driven out, never again
stolen because you are the (sweet)song
you are not just your cassava hips
you are (deep)oceans and (freed)fists
you are the broken chains of ancestors
and the (sweet)song of the Anambra bird
with its pigeon-pea dotted wings flying
across a vast and free African sky
when your cassava hips wanna dance
that eternal (drum)beaten (sweet)song,
dance because you are the child of queens
and kings, warriors, fishermen and farmers,
you are of solid matter and primordial dust,
you are the (secret)eternal cassava dancer
~ shhhhhhh
so when your cassava hips wanna dance
to the (forbidden)rhythm across this land,
let ‘em hip hop & salsa with riotous pride,
walk past those who dare steal your (drum)
beaten (sweet)song, those who try and fail
to silence the syncopation of your cassava hips
to your own (drum)beaten (sweet)song,
let ‘em shake, let ‘em sway and fight
those who try stealing your sweetness,
spreading you on toast like mango jam
to spit you out, ignorant of your flavors
when your cassava hips wanna dance
to your loud (drum)beaten (sweet)song,
let ‘em salsa and rumba because yours
is a radiance, a sweetness, a swagger
that will not be driven out, never again
stolen because you are the (sweet)song
you are not just your cassava hips
you are (deep)oceans and (freed)fists
you are the broken chains of ancestors
and the (sweet)song of the Anambra bird
with its pigeon-pea dotted wings flying
across a vast and free African sky
when your cassava hips wanna dance
that eternal (drum)beaten (sweet)song,
dance because you are the child of queens
and kings, warriors, fishermen and farmers,
you are of solid matter and primordial dust,
you are the (secret)eternal cassava dancer
~ shhhhhhh
so when your cassava hips wanna dance
to the (forbidden)rhythm across this land,
let ‘em hip hop & salsa with riotous pride,
walk past those who dare steal your (drum)
beaten (sweet)song, those who try and fail
to silence the syncopation of your cassava hips
Sept / Oct 2023
Anyély Gómez-Dickerson is a Cuban-born immigrant, writer, and poet. Her work appears in The Latino Book Review, Acentos Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, La Libreta Poetry Journal, and NALAC’s Label Me Latina/o Journal. With a degree in poetry from Florida International University and BS from Temple University, this Latina probes issues plaguing marginalized communities, while exploring diasporic truths and her own European, black, and Taína ancestry. Anyély resides in Hawaii with her better half. She is honored to share publication space with such amazing authors!
Art: Hilma af Klint. The Ten Largest, No. 2 — Childhood. Oil, tempera, paper. 1907.