Sorry doctor, I can’t smile
I can’t twist my lips into happiness,
I can’t cure what my eyes have seen with my mouth,
No matter how far I get, the vinegar remains,
In pearls of sadness on my tongue,
I’m sorry doctor, I’m a hard case,
Not one you can brush off with the flick of a wrist,
It’s because, because, you see,
Because I’m not black and not white,
I’m both,
And I suffer doubly from both sides,
I suffer from trying to unite two parents, two worlds, two colours, two gendres,
I suffer from being born.
Issa A. Dioume 