Brown skinned girl
With a name coined by Shakespeare (supposedly)
Because my mother feared the judgment of the colonizer

Anglicized—
Not just my name
But my mind
Because for years, I feared the judgment of the colonizer

Assimilate, they said, or disappear
For we shall not be inconvenienced

But I am more than my assimilation
More than my anglicization
I am more than your judgment
More than your fragility

I am red, white, and blue
And Pacific waves crashing against the Fijian sand
And the mendhi-stained hands of
My Girmit ancestors who toiled in the sugarcane fields

I am labyrinthine
I am undiminished
A decolonized heart
Wrapped in brown skin