What I Took and What I Left

By Ahnika

In response to “Father Son and Holy Spirit” by Audre Lorde

What do you take home?
What do you want people to remember about you?

ConTextos Chicago’s “team writes” are dedicated time where we as managers, facilitators, and community advocates get to take off our hats and engage in Authors Circle ourselves. It’s a time where we can unpack after helping everyone else unpack. In this weeks team write I chose a piece by Audre Lorde: “Father Son and Holy Spirit.” I was inspired by her candidness around death, memory and distance that lingers in the afterlife. It’s somewhat of an ode to complicated relationships that still exist even when one person in that relationship is gone.

This poem inspired the prompts:

The writing below was inspired by these prompts. What did they bring up for you?
I encourage you to write what’s on your heart and mind!

What I Took and What I Left by Ahnika Franklin

I took home a smile

Chuckling while thinking about the stories the kids made up in Mafia

Took home the joy of knowing that everybody's inner child got to smile.

I took home the rush to grow up

I'm grown and still in a rush to grow up

How do I tell the young ppl that they shouldn't rush

That the world will do that for them

And they should just be happy and young

I took home a vision

Inspired by the moving school of fish

All going in different directions but towards the same vision

I took home the grind

The stolen time at the end of the night

Getting off work to go to work

I want people to remember my smile

The light that pours out of me in abundance

I want them to remember my laugh

My joy

My distance

I want people to remember how I look when I dance

Free and wild

And I want people to remember to give me space when I dance

I want them to remember how excited I get when I talk about the things that matter

I want them to remember my imperfections

To remember my human

I want them to remember the love

I want them to remember my utopia:

A bunch of queer people of color on some land

Raising kids together

I want them to remember my waves

And the smile lines developing on my face

I want them to remember how cool I was

How underground I was