The Fairytales We Never Heard: A poem by Dominique Jones
The Fairytales We Never Heard | Dominique Jones @xenameir
We grew up in this world without magic.
Using fairytales to make whimsy and mitigate
the power of the tragic.
Imagination became the manifestation for ghouls,
fairies, and the best libraries;
to become conduits to instill life’s lessons
Onto us and explore our wonder and laughter.
In our world
the spirit of society
Possessed black bodies
and stripped us of our smiles.
It grew tired of our jokes
so it muted our laughter.
Left us searching for
happily ever afters
tucked into the matter of materials
that didn’t even matter.
So now that we have cried
enough tears to sink the ships
of our hearts into the depths
of our anger,
can we have our smiles back?
Exorcise this demon
that has been leeching off of the magic
of happiness that makes up our humanity.
So no more rituals using the tears
of sonless mothers or daughterless fathers.
No more relying on the mana
of our misery. As I hope you can look again
more blissfully at the enchantment
our joy can carry into a room.
We have to negate the need
to placate the positive power
of the black child’s smile.
We have to bloom the beauty
that is the black human’s heart.
There has been so much magic
we have been holding back
from the fairy tale of our reality.
No story is worth telling when some of its chapters
aren’t fully written, but every story has a soul
worthy of being heard.
So can we key in on the voices
that so frequently get pegged as villains
and listen to the tales of how
the caged birds sings free?
Or how Brandon Leake
was the first man to bring poetry
to the first place spot in AGT,
and believe me,
If you have found yourself laughing
at GIFs online it’s about time we give credit
to the one named Lisa Gelobter.
Who drew the line on the map
that led to the treasure of its existence.
So with this, notice these are just a few ways
a little bit of magic has gone a long way
in shifting how we think
and how we feel.
So can we open our hearts
to the magic we’ve been missing?
So we can cast the spells from mana
of our compassion that the world
has been wishing for.
And start writing the chapters
no one could write alone,
but we can all smile while doing it.
Written by Dominique Jones
Dominique Jones has been a member of Project Legacy for the past three years. Currently residing in St. Paul, Dominique is first and foremost an artist; an actor, poet, dancer and videographer.
Dominique's multimedia piece "The Ones in the Attic" will premiere at the April 24, 2021 event with Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries and Project Legacy, "Radical Kinship: An Evening with Father Greg Boyle.”
Follow Dominique on social media @xenameir