freewrite

And because they keep us out of history books

I wonder what Negro spirituals sound like in Spanish

People forget we have them

That we have history

That lies underneath ground cloaked in darkness

And while America has modernized

We still build houses with roofs made out of hay

We still watch children run barefoot

On dirt roads

We still take shits outside

Among the animals

and when we cluster together

through underground networks

of distant relatives

we end up in jobs no one else will do

Do not tell me

That I cannot claim black

It’s just ignorant

We were plucked from African soil too

Genocide killed indigenous kings and queens

There are no graves for them

And no pages for them in history books.

soy Dominicana,

anacaona