by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle
In the instance of encounter
I am taken for the stranger
the unknown interloper
Between two worlds
I am the interlocutor
indivisible inextricable
I am the duality—
seen and unseen
dark and light
I am love and hate
the top and the bottom
the ocean and the land
two sides of a mountain
the sun and the moon
the day and the night
I am the diaspora
Everywhere all the time
the truth-speaking mouth the all-seeing eye
I emerge from the hidden quarters
claiming my rightful place
in the lore of all time
In the parade of the Mummers
in the skits of Pierrot
in the Commedia dell’ Arte
I am the face of the harlequin
I am the drama and the comedy
I am the truth and the fiction
An unbroken line
through the masquerade of time
The history and the mystery
Down from Egypt, out of Africa
I am the progenitor of Mardi Gras
I am the Voodoo and the Who Dat
Come closer, look into my eyes
I am the master of guise
I am the yin and the yang
Fear me love me
Know that I am essential
I am all I am none
Look into the mirror
Written in response to the photo “Zulu Masker, Mardi Gras, 2006” by Nell Campbell.
Please join us December 8, 4-6 p.m. at the Book Den, 15 E. Anapamu St., for a reading of poetry from Volume 4 of the Santa Barbara Literary Journal, for which Sojourner will be reading.
Sojourner Kincaid Rolle has lived and written in Santa Barbara for nearly 35 years. She is a poet, playwright, and all-around community gad-a-bout. Her published books include Common Ancestry, Black Street, and The Mellow Yellow Global Umbrella. She served a two-year term as Santa Barbara’s sixth Poet Laureate (2015-2017).