Hello everyone,
I hope your week is going well. If you saw my TikTok message a few days ago, you learned that I have three surprise announcements.
One announcement is ready! I just finished the 3rd Edition of my poetry book, Milk or Lebese in Sesotho. The reason I keep going back to this chapbook is that I write poetry for healing and there is nothing like writing freely about my life experiences. If you enjoy poetry, please don't go too far.
And, in the meantime, here is one of my poems from the new Milk Edition:
A Slip on a Post
I fell onto this Twitter page,
with grim migrant news filling the White feed.
Then there you were a
Brown
torn-up,
piece of crinkled paper.
An attorney fee receipt is who you are...
stuck in the middle of a Twitter page,
Pampered with long words on how
ICE gave you a free ride from a city kitchen
When did your kind become so valuable?
A gold alloy tarnishing on a merchant's shelf awaits release.
Brown
crinkled paper
I scrolled down the page.
And there you are making money
with your
GoFundMe campaign for legal fees.
So, it’s wrong to work without papers, but
Do legal fees of oblivious origin sift into GoFundMe?
It would not be moral if it wasn’t contradictory,
like hungry ICE eating out of a hungry migrant's mouth.
ICEd silver bracelets hug your wrists without a warrant.
What is this sparkly thing,
a display
of romance?
this stealthy embrace?
ICE
crushes into
personal space
I've been here
before!
Your tired, sunken eyes, my eyes... from a history of repeated injuries
It was "tyranny" when they stifled the Laws for Naturalisation of Foreigners;
When they
choked immigration laws and people,
blocked the borders and people.
but now it is the Great United States,
wearing red Brit coats on the
Land of the Free!
Look at us!
You and I both have since worn fatigue.
Eyes red from Utah street protests dust
and long hours of online petitions where eyeballs incessantly dodge the glare.
A history of repeated injuries!
We have decades-old pictures.
We are faded receipts stored for evidence.
We are faded receipts stored for proof of address.
Faded receipts of migrant chronologies—that’s how
we build our immigration case, payment after payment.
This is how "shithole" people dare dream.
I remember the last time I saw you.
a crushed receipt accidentally washed in hot water.
Your old ink had bled, wept, and dried.
The jaded receipt!
You’ve gone through so many
ICEd hands.
Pawn of the system
They keep shifting you around for good deals.
I return to you because when I see you, I see myself.
When will I see you again, or have they already scheduled you to be in and out?
Pawn of the system?
A copy of the book should be available on Amazon in 72 hours.
If you would like to compare the different editions, I can send you the copies directly because I have several copies to share. Thank you for staying with me on this strange path of African Exmormon.
3rd March 2023 Update