Ziba

Nanshe’s blossom 

I was a Royal Dancer of scented Jasmine in the land of one thousand suns as I inched closer to Rabat’s sands as I danced for a Ram

I was covered in gold sequins and veils and then I was a serpent that would clank during the strange night, and my eyes were black as death and my skin was brown in a perfumed night palace 

Your camouflaged tongue has lied 

Your frame of mind shattered and died

I danced hypnotically as an exotic Nubian with many arms with my brown skin that became Black, and the lips of my face were full and my nose flat

I twist my hips towards Cypress, something I play at!

A taboo leaves a scar in Madagascar

Half of my face became a moon as I glittered among night in a cinematic dream flaunting Freya

I was languishing in my brown flesh with Flamingos in a champagne bath in a famed hotel

I was chartreuse painted brown eyes murdered in poverty and my relaxed hair was bobbed in the fashion of Aida

Then suddenly the dancing stopped!

Featurism represses my ebony skin 

I woke up and I was now a deserted Black woman stripped of her hidden cities 

I lost yesterday’s amour in a padded room 

My soul was eaten by the gray moth has died inside of me bloomed 

Veils flaunting my Ibo facial features, and my dowry was stolen 

I am hidden like Ziba made to serve in the cloistered life suffering under the night of the star goat’s moon 

A Banquet 

By Tiffany Haty

April 19, 2025   

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