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In this arresting piece, the voice of Marlanda Dekine's poem challenges our patterns of oppression in echo of Proverbs 31:3.
Today, without ongoing self-examination, we all—both white and of color—easily perpetuate the ongoing oppression of others. We have to understand that our current racial chasm is not an accident.
Proverbs 3:31
Know Thyself
By
Marlanda Dekine
Credits:
Curated by:
Lauren Ferebee
2016
Poetry
Primary Scripture
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Share This Art:
The Book of Proverbs has spoken to me throughout my life in many different ways. However, while sifting through its wisdom and being mindful of my personal gifts and my work, it was clear to me that illuminating Proverbs 3:31 was what I ought to do. For centuries, our nation has hidden from the oppression it has inflicted upon people who were not the founding norm—white, heterosexual, Christian, cisgender, and property-owning.
Today, without ongoing self-examination, we all—both white and of color—easily perpetuate the ongoing oppression of others. We have to understand that our current racial chasm is not an accident. The many black and brown bodies that have bled onto this soil are speaking to us. It is my hope that this poem will encourage us to listen, even when it is difficult. It is also my hope that through the work of knowing ourselves, we find ourselves engaged in an ongoing, courageous commitment of working towards true reconciliation and reparation.
Spark Notes
The Artist's Reflection
Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul (she/her/they) is a poet and social worker from Plantersville, South Carolina. She is pursuing her MFA in Poetry with New York University's Low-Residency program in Paris.
Learn more about their work at sapientsoul.com.
Marlanda Dekine
About the Artist
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Related Information
I am free of the supremacy that drives you, binding your life.
We have always been your mirror and the form of your shadow.
You need us.
Know thyself
A Poem by Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul
Proverbs 3:31
"Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways."
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I am free of the supremacy
that drives you,
binding your life.
We have always been your mirror
and the form of your shadow.
You need us.
Those who hide their guilt in giving empty gifts
are afraid of proximity to themselves in the other.
This other who has always known Ma’at.*
The oppressor hovers under privilege,
praying to the idol of themselves,
“Oh, how terrible! Help us.”
You build walls and shoot into mirrors of the unarmed,
afraid to face yourself.
When tragedy comes to awaken you,
we know that some will still choose sleep.
For you and those of us who become you—
I pray, but I will not struggle.
* Ma'at was the rule of law and moral justice among the ancient Kemet people, and the divine cosmological order within their mythology, astronomy, and astrophysical studies. Kemet is the name the native African people of the country now known as Egypt called themselves in their surviving writings.
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I am free of the supremacy that drives you, binding your life.
We have always been your mirror and the form of your shadow.
You need us.
