My Blood Still Knows

I didn't grow up knowing what it meant. To come from

warriors to feel that strength. I kept my head down, played the part.

But something was missing right from the start. I knew I was Mali but

didn't know how. To carry that truth, stand and be proud.

I heard it in hakka, I felt it in song. But the voice

in my head told me, "You don't belong." They say mana runs deep,

but I never knew mine. Just a name on a paper, not a mountain

to climb. No one to show me the shape of my past.