Burning Copper
By Imasha Costa, Arts & Literature Editor
this copper that lingers in my blood rules me,
turning me into the person that i am.
i learned how to embrace the copper within me, allowing the sunlight to escape and flourish within every cell inside of me; igniting the fire that had been asked to simmer down and not cause damage.
i learned to embrace the colour – the copper that runs through my veins.
i learned to become someone that was hiding underneath all the raw flesh that broke me apart;
my skin is my country, is my legacy, is my fealty.
this copper that i have moulded has become a part of me and is me.
(i am sinhalese, i am bangladeshi). my culture is who i am, and who i evolve from.
my story is yet to be told but the copper will keep on burning and burning until she is ready to fight for her humanity.
this copper is in me, i am me.
no one can take that from me.
i. am. me.
i am the beauty you see in the flames of the burning copper.