Tammy Ronique Williams – FROM THE GROUND UP 

67 
 

“From the Ground Up” 
As a child, instinct never quite gave me  

the understanding I needed to know the difference 
but as I grew, I flourished with the wisdom of my forefathers. 

Wisdom once branded, shoveled and burned alive, by ignorance 
now interred in plots once ploughed with the bones. 

 
I want to feel that when you look at me,  

you will see deeper than the scars entrenched in my body.  
Those which after generations, have still managed to descend into my 

genealogy. 
 

I want to feel that my potential will not be dwarfed 
for that of a little melanin, 

for the fact that I inherited the structure of my ancestors. 
I was clueless then, not realizing that along with the features 
encrypted in my DNA, came the blemishes of a bleeding past 

which would always seem to aggressively control me. 
 

I want not to feel the remnants of pain’s years stinging through your 
eyes 

To feel that you are not threatened by the knots of my kinky hair, 
nor the dirt caked and pounded into my flesh over time. 

 
I want to feel it is okay to hang my head over the railing 

hair blowing in the wind 
to be able to open my eyes under the Caribbean waters 

without your whips suppression 
to run free forgetting years of shackles and bare-bottomed lashes 

 
I want for you to know that man cannot take or repress  

the undaunted spirit rattling like a snake  
quiet, but coursing inside of me 

A movement which will continue to thrive 
to be celebrated.