One language, in another life potentially two  

One culture both despised and loved 

Another lost to the void  

Able to wear dashikis  

but not understand their significance 

Able to flaunt corn rows  

and pretend it connects me to lost sisters and brothers 

Viewed by Africans as other 

Views African culture as the standard 

A way of life I aspire to grasp 

Which was stolen 

Religion, stolen 

Traditions, stolen 

Westernized by those a sea away  

Belongs in Africa to some around 

And me, yearning to know this other version of me  

An African me 

Coiled up hair me 

Who know her home country, home language, home dialect, me 

Who can imagine the lives of her ancestors before slavery, me 

Who knows her unamerican self, me