We carry this distinct shine
Melanated refraction of light
Consuming my attention
She pauses,
Her skin mine
Her words ours
We sway along with her sentences
Her sentences lead us to constellations
Constellations of fragment realities
And unventured Blackness
I absorb our energy I swear,
Black skin glows
Black joy absorbs
Blackness reconfigures
As I dissolve
My breath stiffens
Every pigment a point of consolidation
I stare at him
He preaches about stray children
Lost and disoriented
In the infamous corners of Europe
For Europe is not the start
Nor the end
For Europe was never the start
Nor it will be the end
We are infinite
He knows
Sometimes joy is recognition
Our smile sheltering each other
It is sxsterhood
With an X
Because blackness is not confined to gender
Those days we only smoke, drink and talk
Long nights of overcompensation
with bougie wine and good music
Sometimes
It is inwards and outwards
Her skin borderless
Every shade compressed
Perplex I stand
She does not speak anymore
They only walk passed me
Passed being the verb not the adverb
ad-being indication of linear time
Where I come from this time is not an indication of linear being
My being is not linear
Blackness is not linear
For linearity is the absence of change and difference
Uneven paced
Hips and feet movements
nights overshadowed by Tambú
She is quite
He is also indulged by silence
They only move
My right foot taps on the drum beat
Don't underestimate the power of afro-vibrations
I close my eyes
Even then I sway with their stories
The crowd as dense as the 'serena'
All moving, ritualising our existence
I just stare
These are not goosebumps
These are my pigments rejoicing
I take in as much as I can
This warmth is all-encompassing
Blackness is all-encompassing
We sway along with the music
Telling complex stories about our resistance
As we express and refuse to dilute ourselves
The night is infused with blackness
Sometimes,
It is just being
Being here
Being surrounded
Being loved
Being heard
Being understood
Sometimes black joy is just being
Black
Stacy Alves is a 21 year old black queer activist and poet from Curaçao. "My Poems are a reflection of my activism and daily experiences and social justice mostly regarding capitalism, inequality, queer and minority struggles. It’s where I articulate and express myself on “what it means to be black and queer”. This ranges from hostility of the outside world to inner battles e.g. anxiety and depression. What I try to do with my poetry is to go beyond myself by depicting and intertwining my own experiences, questions and knowledge with that of others."