"...the child, tiny and alone, creates the mother ..."
Adrienne Rich

You are mine and mine only
my cherry-red hot-air balloon
lifting me from an Atlantic bath
into an English sky

We sideways step into double-decker buses
roll into Tescos like a steamship importing cargo.
Your okra fingers juck me belly,
point to the full-fat ice-cream
Viennese whirls, microwave pizzas
liquorice sticks

I am yours and yours only.
In our midnight feasts Daddy sleeps through
our calypso while cocoa butter anoints
these messages you're marking on my skin

I want to keep you here
my passageway, my roadmap
my new tongue, my street light.
I'm holding on tight tight to the string