Dahlia

I picture the home that will never end / inside the pink hue of a hollowed pearl

Image: close-up shot of pink and yellow dahlia flowers. Photo by Stephanie Mulrooney on Unsplash

Today I am a Dahlia
I have extended my two feet
and I have chosen to surf
on the face of the sun

“We must dare to invent the future”*
so I picture petals unravelling
in this short time here
and giving nurturing life
to black nobles who have not seen
the grapevines coiling across their
thrones yet
and I picture the home that will never end
inside the pink hue of a hollowed pearl
the swirl of incense burning to raise my spirit
into annihilation

Tonight I am a Dahlia,
I have invented a dream that seems it could come true
so I work and pray that the fruits of this moon
that has risen across my iris continues to glow a path
that will take me
to everlasting
bliss.

*From 1985 interview with Swiss Journalist Jean-Philippe Rapp, translated from Sankara: Un nouveau pouvoir africain by Jean Ziegler. Lausanne, Switzerland: Editions Pierre-Marcel Favre, 1986. In Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983–87. trans. Samantha Anderson. New York: Pathfinder, 1988. pp. 141–144.

Image: shot of Soukeyna Osei-Bonsu outside walking away from the camera. She is wearing an over-sized pink and white striped shirt, light pink hijab, and brown shoulder bag.

Soukeyna Osei-Bonsu is an Amazigh/ Ashanti writer who is passionate about her Black Muslim identity. Soukeyna’s work features themes of the centrality of Africa, diasporic identity as well as Islamic spirituality and healing. Soukeyna has been writing intermittently over the last six years and has collected her writing into her upcoming book: ‘Peace of Mind, Noble Whale.’