Image courtesy of Ingrid Magnusson. Shared via a Creative Commons license.

Grey Matter

I email to tell her I have pink eye,
and she say that’s my father’s side
coming out,
how pink eye is a black people t’ing.

And when I had lice as a child,
she say is how I have white people hair,
because lice don’t like black people hair.
But don’t go putting corn row in your hair,
you goin’ look like a damn white tourist,
never mind every black girl in my class have them.

And when the mosquito bite,
is because I have sweet blood,
them mosquito can tell your lineage.

And when she come visit now in Canada
she carrying on how white I am,
never mind is from her I get my white skin,
and is she send me here, away from the sun.

—-

Vanessa Simmons was born and raised on Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She received an Honours BA in Comparative Literature and Culture from UWO in Canada. She has been published throughout the Caribbean, Canada and the US. She currently work as a Library Assistant and is a contributing editor at ARC Magazine.