Page 78 of The Black Flamingo

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who is just ten minutes

down the road

with Granny

and the Brown family.

He gets the whole family

to shout, “Merry Christmas, Mikey!”

I hear Granny take hold

of the phone. “Mikey, darling,

yuh uncle say

nex year he gon pay

fi us all to go Jamaica

fi Christmas.

Yuh muss cum wid us.”

People Like Me

I’d love to go to Jamaica

with Granny, Uncle B, Aunty B,

and the rest of the family

but I’ve looked it up

and you can go to prison

for having gay sex there.

I’m old enough here;

why would my equal

rights not travel with me?

It doesn’t seem fair

for people like me in Jamaica

to hide, to live in fear.

Conversation with Myself

I’m eighteen now. An adult. I feel like

I should know what I’m doing.

Like, do I really want to go to university?

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