hair pitch black
street lamp broken light
born out of love
and out of sight

eyes crescent moons
rise in the dark sea
society told her
she was not meant to be

lips curved hearts
speaking out painful truths
complicit minds
and lost youth

skin freshly cut
fallen mahogany trees
left out to dry
with a calm breeze

hands slightly wrinkled
from tending soil
a fertile ground
for turmeric oil

feet walked on land
she could not call her own
yet all her wounds
were locally grown

what would it take
to create a new way
where the mango tree
would be cherished to stay

her people seen
not as an exoticized folk other
but for what they’ve always been
conduits to the sacred mother

Author Bio:

Rina Malagayo Alluri (she/her) has been rooted, uprooted and replanted in various soils. She is of Indian and Filipina heritage, was raised in Ibadan, Nigeria and migrated to Vancouver, BC, Canada (Turtle Island). She is currently Assistant Professor and UNESCO Chair for Peace Studies at the University of Innsbruck, Austria and co-founder of The BIPOC Circle. She is a peace scholar, yoga practitioner and mother to two headstrong children. Her poetry weaves together experiences of (de)coloniality, diasporic identities and relationships that form/unform. You can find her poetry in print and online in publications such as: Arlington Literary Journal (ArLiJo), Ausseruniversitaire Aktion, Breadfruit mag, Carnation Zine, Gypsophila, Koukash Review, Literarische Diverse, Open Door Magazine, Moss Puppy Magazine, Perilla Zine, Sunday Mornings at the River, The BeZine and Yellow Arrow Publishing.