By:  Kofi Dadzie

Westborough I’ve given you all and now I’m done

I’ve seen privilege permeate your rez

I’ve seen fascination make a spectacle of my melanin

Westborough made me myth

Made me a myriad of muted tongues and hushed palms

Westborough made me mad

Then became home

I ain’t as obstinate as I used to be

And you’ve you only made me angry four times total anyway

I’ve been baffled at all others

I told you I became spectacle and I meant it

I beat new york slang out of my voice

Until “Deadass” tasted foreign and “wicked” tasted like I was born with is embedded in my lexicon

My transformation from boy to token black friend ain’t something I’m proud

I’ve been made into quips and comebacks,

Made into a puppet marionetted on cut strings to become what you now know and love

I gave you Kofi and received “Coffee”

(What’s good with that anyway? How you continually botch a four-letter name)

Mispronunciation became identity  because me and coffee are one in the same

Sometimes bitter

Only the sweetest when saturated by white ingredients

Nah I ain’t salty

But spent seven years adapting to new surroundings

Hid in plain sight and mistaken for something else

Call that mimicry

Or necessary

Or ignorance

All three will do

I been Ignorant but I’m a product of my surroundings

A town that could moses the east and west sides of the bay state

At the epicenter of it all I dwell

I remain

Westborough you haven’t seen that many black folk have you?

Haven’t seen the token black friend be disatisfied?

Strange fruit tastes funny don’t it?

Like it was never fruit to begin with

I don’t write sad poems but you made me a writer

Turned my blood to ink and watched it spread across a page like spilled coffee on a classroom floor (near my desk specifically)

Westborough Ain’t you tired?

Ain’t you had enough?

Does this development sound like opposition?

Ain’t that suspicious?

Westborough I gave you effort and you took my knees

Track is life but my joints be lifeless most mornings

So I limp forward

A man turned metaphor

Set to ask the questions you’ve been avoiding forever

And I wouldn’t have it any other way

1/12/17