December, 2000 Volume 3, Issue 3 Past Issues About dis/content Editorial Collective Contributors Contact Us Submissions Links Home   Poems by Puerto Rican Women [continued] Ay Ay Ay de la Grifa Negra by Julia de Burgos (from Yo misma fui mi ruta) Ay ay ay, that I’m kinky-haired and pure black; kinky hair, Kafir lips and my flat nose Mozambiques. Black of untouched tint, I cry and laugh the vibration of being a black statue; a chunk of night, in which my white teeth are lightning; and to be a black vine tangled up in the black and curving the black nest in which the raven lies. Black chunk of black in which I sculpt myself, ay, ay, ay, my statue is all black. They tell me that my grandfather was the slave for whom the master paid thirty coins. Ay, ay, ay, that the slave was my grandfather is my sorrow, is my sorrow. If he had been the master it would be my shame: that in men, as in nations, if being the slave is having no rights being the master is having no conscience. Ay, ay, ay, wash the sins of the white King in forgiveness black Queen. Ay, ay, ay, the race escapes me and towards the white race buzzes and flies, to sink in its clear water; or perhaps the white will be shadowed in the black. Ay, ay, ay, my black race flees and with the white runs to become bronzed; to be the one for the future, fraternity of America! Previous section     Next Section     Table of Contents