Tethered

A mutable presence in their prime

wanting to be fixed in later life

In these houses, still misaligned

losing hope in your house, hostage

refuse to let me build my own

spending each shilling and penny

false statements shown

avoiding payment

receive extra payment

none left to raise kin

Is this how you treat your grandmother?

How cyclical, predictable

hands formed for protection, transformed fists

shuffle in the darkness

hoarding of every memory and item

always my and mine not ours or us

eggshells you laid for us you cracked each one before a step

needed your release too

breaking cycles

We'll see when it’s time to dig bury

Bakita Kasadha

Bakita Kasadha is a multi-award winning poet, health researcher and health writer based in the UK. Bakita is a researcher at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, working on an HIV and infant-feeding project.

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BLACK MEN VILLAINS OR MARTYRS: WHAT PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS DO ABSENT FATHERS HAVE ON THEIR BLACK SONS?

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1919, the Year History forgot: ‘riot’ and interraciality in a decolonial school curriculum