They said my mothers are deities, that they wear night on their skin & taffeta on their shaved scalp — they said, 'Devil lives in a sun-baked country, somewhere in the stream of their melanin. Angels are white, they wear white, they live in uptown. But, I have broken the wall of segregation and racism — I now know where the devil resides; on the tip of their pointed nose. I know God lives somewhere in my mothers' hearts, in their comforting hands and diligent mind. He lives in their utterances and everywhere, especially downtown where the Sun waters the ground.
Minkail Olaitan
