Besaydoo
Yalie Kamara
what it means
A mother and daughter are sitting in the car drinking coffee. They overhear two probably Black American teenagers talking to each other. The mother cannot understand them, but the daughter parses out “Alright, Be safe dude.” The family adopts the phrase “Besaydoo” as a mantra to get themselves through difficult times.
Those others aren’t so different from us.
We are all living in a danger zone and we must care for each other.
why I like the poem
Like the speaker, I find the moment extremely tender too, one teenage boy in a danger zone telling another to be safe. I also have a secret family language like “applesauce talk” or “Moo” that have become touchstones of connection in my family.
craft
Really interesting turns in this poem. The scene in the car watching the boys is three stanzas, with a turn in the middle as the mother realizes what the boys are saying. Then there’s a bigger turn to how the family uses the saying in a stanza, and then an even bigger turn to what it means to speak a spell out loud, the power and risk of it. Each turn gives me shivers.