Traci-Ann Wint-Hayles

Life was
searing
And we
overly complacent
Lacking
intuition
Complained for the dense humidity
———————sorrow
 ——————–slipped
———————effortlessly
  —Into our sweat drained pores
One can hardly bear the serenity
It’s raining all over the world

I Hide Me Away

 I hide me away

In pieces and portions and slivers,
I section me off
In accordance with your presumptions.

I measure me
and
break me up into bite sized pieces
and
I wait
to be consumed,
exhausted,
devoured,
for you are always hungry.

I hide me away.
I whittle and shred and shrink
And curve myself
to the shape of your box
and
I undulate.
Still, you do not see me

Breathe.

In intricate stillness
and elaborate noise
I adorn myself
With scraps of your fabric
I use your long fingers
To paint my skin
The colours of your rain cloud
And wedge your words under my tongue
I fill your eyes
With my tears
And through the haze
I watch you
Watching me
And together we dream
In monochrome
Of things our mirrors do not see

I hide me away.

Traci-Ann Wint is a Ph.D. candidate in the African and African Diaspora Studies department at the University of Texas at Austin. She holds an MA in Anthropology from UT Austin and a BA in Anthropology and Africana Studies from Vassar College and is currently writing a dissertation that explores the intricacies of race, tourism, and national identity in Jamaica. Among other things she has been a TV producer, project manager, event planner, ethnographer, public speaker, and teacher and through it all has maintained a love for storytelling, story making, and poetry. Her poetry has appeared in The Caribbean Writer, The Feminist Wire, Susumba’s Book Bag and in an award-winning issue of the journal Cultural StudiesóCritical Methodologies. She is from Kingston, Jamaica.