Susan Hunter Downer was born in Birmingham to Jamaican parents and has lived in Sheffield for 20 years. She had her first short story published in a Creative Future anthology in 2019. This is her first poem.
There’s No Easy Way to Say This
by Susan Hunter Downer
No-one told me I was Black
The colour of infinity
They attacked me with it from behind
Spat it in my face
Uttered a curse about interesting times
How was I to know
Straight up
I could stand on two legs
Speak and be heard
Without shame
No-one told me I was as beautiful as the blanket thrown over the sky
They sat me down with clasped hands and cracked lips and said,
‘You have to prepare for the worst.’
A song in she-flat
My skin, war paint
A declaration of violence
Not same enough
To live among open faces
How was I to know
They lied.
