Leilani
Taneus-Miller

SHE HAUNTED ME UNTIL,

I asked her what she wanted              stop running

I turned myself fully, faced her        talk to me

She told me about Atlantis                 it’s not where you think

She told me it was a grave                  so many buried under the waves

A city of drowned                                  dead as slaves

She told me of the millions                black bodies under the sea floor

She told me not to be afraid              face us

To resurrect their words                      we exist

I drew her a map        let me draw you

The Atlantic is one-fifth of the earth’s surface       my grave is not a myth                 

Showed her the imprecise location              let me draw the scene between our eyes

Fathomless layers of water                it’s not what you think

I let her gather me in                                          let me show you

The unfossilised sweat and tears    salted over salted over salted                           

It tasted of me             It tasted of her                           no more sweet blood

there are trees you must know

they come up from the sea

carry the past on their limbs

they reach down below the graves

touch the earth

make a ladder in the sky

to the place holier than the sea

Leilani Taneus-Miller is a Haitian Scottish writer. She has an MLitt in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. Her creative practice employs ekphrasis, afro-futurism, critical fabulation, ancestral memory and ritual space to narrate the story and archival presence of often hidden histories. The intended outcome of her writing and conceptual art is to foster
a shared consciousness on the subject of entangled histories and support contemporary approaches to reparations.