- there is
no french word for i miss you
instead tu me manque means
you are missing from me
[i.e, you first taste absence on a colonizer’s tongue]
no french word for longing either, nothing for
what the absence of Zaire does to me
french word for body is corps
translates back into English as corpse or cadaver
[note: how the colonizer’s tongue turned the body into its absence with the erasure of a word]
i am longing for a language i’ve never learned but
[REMEMBER! there is no french word for longing!]
- someone
is always asking when i will let this tongue go
but in defense of having a language with which to call home
i answer ma mère me manque
[i.e, my mother is missing from me]
no word for what her absence does to my body
[maybe show it by designing your smile after hers]
- listening,
carefully,
i allow myself a tiny grace
that every spoken sound can bring me home
anything can be a langue if
there is someone listening
Cianga (they/she) is a Congolese interdisciplinary artist based in California, by way of South Africa. A winner of the inaugural Evaristo Prize for African Poetry, they have received numerous fellowships including ones from Brooklyn Poets, UC Berkeley’s Poetry and Cave Canem’s Starshine and Clay. Their upcoming chapbook debut was the winner of Foglifter Press’ Start a Riot! contest. They were also a semi-finalist for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize and NFSPS Board Award. As a refugee based in America, Gracia’s work seeks to decolonize language and knowledge. They are currently an MFA candidate and work as a teaching artist.
