Olivia Douglass

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Efe is my other name / my father’s tongue calling / my other life / my free body

Efe Efe Efe, my father’s tongue, handed a na(   )me I have never claimed.
I am born be(   )longing in the weight of flesh.

Efe in a place (                      ) I am  

efE Efe efE Efe,

rolling song, swaying something, un(                 )catched,      (Efe               )

Has come again, heard my blood trying to turn to water,
sighs at such desires, knows the taste of them.

He calls,  Efe oh oh Efe ohh oohhh,
in his mouth I am kept safe,
from (      ) wandering.

He sings, Efe Efe oohh Efe,

me, ungrown,
collapse into carpet,
after dancing in circles to his (   ) naming.
Little chest, not yet heavy, pulsing in prayer.

              Efe              come

carry me (                )                 there
again                                                                before they come
                                with moulding hands

take me
away
                                where you (                be)

                 gently and true

E feeee E feee E ffff eeeeee

Then,
a tickle in my ear, stroke of wet, almost breath,
small hairs stand still, craning. 

Efe, has come again.

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OLIVIA DOUGLASS is the Author of Slow Tongue (2018). Their published and produced works seek to create the terrain for writing and language to re-mould the traditional and colonial images surrounding the Black queer experience. Their work has been published, read and performed across the UK and internationally.