i dreamt i was drowning in a swell
waters rising
no higher place in sight
grandmother, aunt, uncle: all dead
having expended their capitol of grief early
i felt you breathing next to me
you whom i love
from the space of my childhood
like i have never loved anybody
i instruct myself to get out of the darkness
the humid waters that reek of
corpses shot
standing shoulder-to-shoulder
my life sown to the borders of their death
make no mistake
you who suffer my deaths
the body-count
even though you do not know it
the swell of the waters is
as much mine as it is yours
it only appears as though i am here alone
drowning in the waters of the dead
my dead
who are not yours
though you will have your own
in the morning i walk down the avenue
wind shearing my face
aware that i am writing
a poem unworthy of the dead
who hang from its words
how do i tell you
that i am the child of mortal enemies
this land into which i was born
& that land on which i was raised
the dead faceless in the rusty glow of the moon
i made garlands of the weeping willows
magnolia of childhood
from where i love you
where i made believe
unaware that the life i was living
would become a ghost
old the briberies
the contracts signed
the corrupt dealings
the bodies eliminated
the give me this & i will let you
have thats
but
imagine
i return to tell you
cheeks flushed from the cold
imagine
a whole life
become ethereal
imagine
staring
at
your
own
ghost
__________________________________
Words By is available now from UNICEF Next Generation.
