lifetime.

XVI

how you wanted me

an acrylic camel on a wall of skin

and sun; la guerra

non è finita

sabicas:

in the night without breath

in the night without breath

the bellies of the birds

move

not

in the night without breath

kawaida:

bad poetry comes from the heart,

good words live in the belly- kawaida.

this is africa

an africa without mice rain and endless conversation

one stops, another begins- no, under the baobab

a daughter gives her son silence

her mother moringa

what separates us here, so far

from africa. from africa

is not silence. it’s the endless, coming

words. the mouths we use

are hers.