bttbjournal

Day · Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 5:59 pm Post subject: HALF LOST (Ayehli Agiyousi)

HALF LOST (Ayehli Agiyousi)

“How could you not know?” they all asked of me,
When I found out my Grandfather
Was full Cherokee.
Grandfather, why did you cover your Nation?
And hide all the facts of my father’s creation?
Is it because they put you in chains,
And with hiding the reasons they took such great pains?
That the history was lost of our family tree
Until it was found by my sister and me?

“Just look at yourself in a mirror,” they said.
“It’s a wonder your skin isn’t Cherokee red.”
So I sit and I picture my Grandfather sitting
Imprisoned because of a white judge’s bidding.
And now he is gone and the history, too,
And I’m left here with no one to say if it’s true,
That my dad was half-Cherokee, and I pay the cost,
Half in and half out, half found and half lost.

Grandfather, tell me at least while I’m sleeping,
The secrets a whole generation is keeping,
Please tell me that, one day I’ll learn the whole tale
So I’ll know who I am though my skin is so pale,
And this feeling I have that I am Tsalagi,
Will be passed on to my children,
Through you and through me.

- Ugitsisdeyi (Dawn Watson), Tsalagi