When They Ask What My Name Means – Gloria Kiconco
I don’t remember who named me
it’s a name so uncommon you could pull it out of a crowd. at home it is not at all special
Silver Spoons – Lydia Kasese
The loss of our jobs has made us soft with caring.
It has humbled our tongues and taught us to ask how are you today
Moon Houses – Dorothy Kigen
From the shelter of the stars and the whisper-woven wind
Daybed turned nightbed turned Starbed fronds of Milky Way
Federal – Liyou Libsekal
it begins and ends at the hills of Addis Ababa
and when he rests his AK on his shoulder, weaves it into himself—skin, spine, steel
and these are eyes – Ashley Makue
soil is home wind carries brown over the border river is the border sand is at home sand is lost loss is black the infant is also black
Genesis – Nkateko Masinga
I met Moshe in August
the month when everything settles except the dust
August means eighth month
Prodigal Son – Cheswayo Mphanza
who leaves Dakar for France, but returning
becomes a sort of shame. I share Diouana’s ambivalence
to the idea of home. So what then to make of her suicide
Poem to be read from Right to Left – M.E. Mustafa
م name my of letter first
meme like sound
joke a become i
me forgetting history my
Asphyxia – Tariro Ndoro
Then I go to my brotherAnd I say brother help me pleaseBut he winds up knockin’ meBack down on my knees_Sam Cooke, “A Change is Gonna Come” suffocation is a metaphor for breathing under water for holding the world on your shoulder, woman there is no rest for the living, the dying, the dead […]
I Watch You Transfigure – Kechi Nomu
Because days become un-demarcated, I have not learnt to master echoes or afternoons like this where we recall the years of earthworms slipping into our skins from slush. Making dragonflies dance the circus on empty clotheslines. I have been teaching myself to never forget our list of minor tragedies. In this house of dead bulbs […]
Last Night in Tawargha – Salawu Olajide
Last night, just like many nightsunder a blue shed, a blue horror was going on.Whatever happens to the characters in a story remains in it,Brecht calls this alienation effect. You want to spell loveso you tell your brother,Abid, not to return hometo become a ghost in the middle of Tripoli. Hear the […]
Loneliness – Romeo Oriogun
I do not want to write how lonely a car parked under the rain in a deserted road sings, but I’ve been on this road for ten years, searching for a boy to translate the sweetness in my language; searching for a door out of the fear sitting in my throat. Nothing is constant; birds […]
