Test Of The Tongue - Sheadly Marcelin

Say it - a word meant for seasoning, perejil,

twisted into a border,

a password to survival thousands were never taught to say.

Say it - the state claimed order and protection,

yet sent soldiers to judge humanity

by the shape of a mouth and the sound of a vowel.

Say it - Haitian lives reduced

to accents, rumors, and fear,

as if mispronunciation could justify a machete.

Say it - the river that once held stories

was forced to hold bodies,

and the official reports softened the truth

into something cleaner than what happened.

Say it - memory refuses to stay quiet,

carried by descendants who know both the word

and the wound it opened.

Therefore, let it be recorded:

language was used to kill,

silence was used to hide it,

and remembering is its own form of resistance.

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Sheadly is a UAlbany Senior who’s graduating in the Fall. She loves to write fiction and romance but for this submission she submitted a poem on the Parsley Massacre inspired by Whereas: Poems by Layli Long Soldier. The Parsley Massacre is when Dominican Soldiers asked suspected Haitians to pronounce “perejil.” Those who could not were killed.