Maelynn Seymour-Major

I am sitting
having coffee
across from a man
who says

You’re lucky
to be from Barbados:                                                           strike one

The Bahamas
I gently correct                                                          

To swim in the sea 
whenever you want 
to eat fresh seafood
to live in such a tropical paradise
it must be like vacation every day:                                    strike two

He says this with excitement
as he imagines that if this coffee-date goes well
he will spend summers with me
running along the shore 
holding hands
heads thrown back as we laugh 
at some unknown joke

I think if this date goes well
and he makes it to home
meets my mother
who will have him hang curtains 
in her family room because of his height

He will watch the news
with my father 
hear the litany of jooking
shooting raping 
and wonder where is that story sold

He will come eat conch salad 
and truth be told
he has already said he is not culinarily adventurous
so he won’t like it
and I won’t like that:                             strike three, imagined but no less real. 

Maelynn began writing poetry about the flowers in her grammy’s garden. Her poetry is still heavily influenced by nature, but she also writes about Caribbean and/or Black experiences of love. Maelynn has an MA in Poetic Practice from Royal Holloway, University of London. She has taught Creative Writing at the University of The Bahamas as an Adjunct Lecturer. She experiments with book-arts, is an avid reader, and loves her dog Violet.