Writings / Poetry: Wale Adebanwi
*Mogadishu Blues
(For Zuleikha)
By Wale Adebanwi
“Soomaali been ma maahmaah do ”
[Somalis don't say a false proverb] – a Somali proverb
I
He bathes his soul in
the waters of her eyes.
He washes his sorrows in
the oceans of her dreams.
He takes...
Writings / Poetry: Luca Xifona
Of Sonia
My heart-woman is Sonia, no other.
Her mouth is sweet; her you-know-what is sweet;
Her breast is sweetbread; her thighs are sweetmeat.
She is champion ivory, dreamy...
Writings / Poetry: Stephen Brockwell
Biography of My Father, the Printer
I swept, the day after my father died,
a thousand pounds of scrap—plates, rods, wires, gears—
with an industrial broom three feet wide.
I didn’t have the energy for tears.
I hurled reams of 90lb cover stock...
Writings / Poetry: Yemi Soneye
Who Then Ever Will Bring Morning?
At 6 am God used the belfry.
The sweep, sonorous of angels,
skinned off the blanket
and opened my eyes for view
the window drew near.
I found the street in vernal
trees, not one sunken
as on mornings from the...
Writings / Poetry: Nico Mara-McKay
Behind the buttercups
Behind the buttercup bramble
The pines stood tall and straight
The crunch of cones underfoot
Yellow puffs of pollen in the spring
We climbed the trees sticky handed
Fragrant sap gummed bark and sweat
Climbed with fierce...