Black body, nobody—
bell hooks calls me spectacle,
the othered body, visible yet unseen.
society marks me as absence,
erases me in the gaze that reduces
Blackness to shadow, womanhood to silence.
As I stand in this skin,
Toni Morrison’s voice echoes,
disremembered, unclaimed.
Where their patriarchal structures tether me—
an African daughter bent under the weight
of society’s colonial tongues, their laws of love.
They want my body obedient,
but desire makes me dangerous,
makes me question who I am
outside of their scripts of oppression.
I am neither woman nor enough
for them to contain, but still I rise.
In the quiet of my own making,
my body exists beyond their control.
No longer nobody.
I find myself unshackled,
Black and free,
speaking the truths they fear to hear.
Sophie Whyte, a Nigerian-born poet and storyteller, bridges cultures through her words. Her work explores memory, connection, and the small moments that make up our shared human experience. While she rests her pen, you will find her catching up on some well-deserved sleep or binge-watching shows.