WHERE I AM FROM
Where I from, the worth of a human life
is measured by the God he swears allegiance to
so, when you trade in the markets
hide your tongue between
the cloves of your throat
coat your exclamations
like the faces that dominate the atmosphere
pretend for your life depends on it
pretend for the joy of your children
floats around it
some nights at the riverbank
I sit and let my thoughts hover
back to 2016, blood gushing out
onlookers chanting — Bridget spending her last breath
I wonder if she’d have lived longer
if she knew these tenets
if she read them every night
Maybe by morning she will be here
to pray her children into a new day.
