Page 105 of The Black Flamingo

---

coming from London.

It’s a nod that says, “I know

we are small in numbers

but we are watching over

each other.” It’s a smile

that says, “We don’t have

to know each other to

show each other love.”

It’s a nod I get in London

but only from Rastafarians

who’d assume I am part

of their religion, but here

in Brighton locs is a hairstyle

with different connotations.

For weeks we are

in the same English lectures

and don’t speak.

At most we nod

if our eyes meet

elsewhere on campus.

In the Students’ Union bar,

when a mutual acquaintance

doesn’t introduce us,

we do it ourselves.

She is astonished

we don’t know each other.

The only two

black men in a course

of over two hundred!

Lennie looks fully black,

---