where i come from

 Choosing your own name is a righteous tradition

for black people

a movement

closer to Africa

to our ancestors.

I’ve thought about it

but I’ve always secretly liked my name.

Francis

chosen by my mother

my strength

taken from my great grandmother

whose great grandmother was a slave.

Francis

the ‘blackymore maid’

an african womyn

who rebelled against her slavery

during the transatlantic trade.

My name comes from warrior womyn

who guided large bodies of water

against currents of domination.

Freedom in their movement

in their determination to live

and I have gathered enough years on this soil

to want more than just living.

I want to feel in my whole self

what it might be like

to know love.

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