Beautiful Nubia sings
And I remember my father dancing,
A 2 step shuffle,
Hips swinging,
Palms face down,
Elbow to waist,
Lopsided smile.
Seven mountains,
Seven streams,
And I remember my mother smirking,
Face slightly raised,
Back resting lightly against couch,
Lips tight,
Derision clear.
Over seas
and over lands,
And I remember my laughter,
My brothers’ echo,
One eye on the dance,
One eye on my mother,
Mocking my father.
In my journey through the world,
Children crying on the streets,
And I remember when my father stopped dancing,
As things got harder,
Slamming doors,
Raised voices
Furious whispers.
So I go into the world,
Into the wild,
And I remember what makes a man stop dancing,
How mocking laughter cuts deeper than silence,
How what is unforgivable is what you decide is unforgivable,
So I call my father.
Beautiful Nubia sings,
and I call my father for the first time since he stopped dancing.
Chika Jones is a performance poet who was recently endorsed by the Arts Council of England in 2021 and received the Global Talent Visa. He relocated to the UK and performed in London for the British Billingual Poetry Collective in 2022. He is currently working on a Poetry translation to a British Sign Language project.