By Siahyonkron Nyanseor
I
Sister Mary, who you hiding from?
That that Lappalonia coming way yonder!
But why you hiding?
She always like to embarrass me.
Embarrassing you like how, Mary?
When she see plenty people around
That’s when she want to talk that Bassa dialect to me.
But Mary, I thought you told us your Ma was civilized!
Of course, my Ma wear dress
That Lappalonia is not my Ma?
The truth of the matter is
That the woman who mind me when I was a baby.
But how come you look just like her?
Excuse me, you must be joking!
I don’t look anything like that Country Woman.
Mary, why you’re trying hard to pass?
You man, excuse me, I am not passing!
II
But the woman say in Bassa, you her daughter
“Or Mon Niju” in Bassa means you’re my daughter
My brother try hard ya, take your trouble somewhere else
Mary, the thing you doing to this woman
Her God will see you; let her God see me
I don’t know why you put your mouth in my business
That’s how people get in trouble
Putting your mouth where it does not belong
My sister, Cat really licked your face oh!
You should be ashamed to disown your own Ma
Where I come from
Only stupid people will do what you’re doing
And you have the nerve to say
I put my mouth in your business
You Liberian people like to copy everything from abroad
What do you mean by that!
In America, they also have black who also engage in passing
Passing to be what!
Passing to be White, Indian, having little of that blood
Other than African blood
And that’s the same thing you’re trying to do
Passing to be the person you’re not.
III
My brother, you have a serious problem
You can’t mind your own business
My sister, you’re the one with the problem
Going around here pretending to become kind of Kwii
When the fact of the matter is
Those people took you from upcountry
To come stay with them here in Monrovia
And now you’re thinking Mighty High of yourself
Looking down on your own born Ma
By the way, if that family you stay with were your own parents
How come you attend Evening School
And the other children attend Morning School?
Copyright © Siahyonkron Nyanseor – All Rights Reserved.
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