My brother e-mails me about how, of late, people have cast words like stares that tell him he has not provided well enough for his family; that their financial struggles have been a burden, like rocks in bags on their backs they didn’t know were there. As he passed through the kitchen yesterday, Judge Judy [...]
Shall I tell you of the bad bard whose vices know no known bounds? Shall I drive my quill over the papyrus, to the life of one worse than Loki of Norse? He is the Don Juan of the land’s leading literati, a Hitler wielding welded words in place of the Nazi army. Darling damsels [...]
I never knew my mom and dad. I remember them though. I remember the way they felt, the way they moved, across silicon and light. The way they spoke to each other. Even the way they fought. ~ I remember so clearly how my dad felt the first time he met her. The first time [...]
Who will marry me? Who will marry this smeared calabash on my head? It sort of looks like treasure passed down from my three mothers: one who wore stolen necklaces made of gold plated silver; she learnt to pick locks from strong chains while her father watched the random direction of the wind. The mother [...]
Underneath the heap of rocks and stones a restive but captive stream waits, listening to the hilarious uproar of tumultuous world and of gaudy nature and cries to be a part of them and a heart of their joint incarnation for their vitality and immortality, flowing and cleaning the century-long dumped dirt and garbage, singing [...]
Congo. A bongo. A drum and a joke. A man on his knees with a knife to his throat. Bombing The Congo. A Belgian pastime. Lay out the bodies and dust them with lime. Rubber, Our Mother. A tree leaking gold. Lapping that sap? King Leopold! A song without notes. Dust on the tongue. No [...]
I was set at the very onset of the olden time when history was just born engraving me on a piece of stone, diagonal to the eyes but still straight to touch the universal heart inspiring artists to handshake with me appreciating me a gorgeous part of art God-fearing to touch the dust of my [...]
Something stirred inside Duma. Something dark, restless and wild. It called to her from the depths of the jungle, luring her from a life where nothing ever changed. Her tribe had spent centuries dancing to the same old drum, lulled by the same old songs. But Duma longed for more. “There is nothing more,” the [...]
Abdulaziz sat on the floor and listened to the screams and the music through his window. Outside, everything was wild. He wasn’t old enough to remember the last election, but he couldn’t imagine it being as loud as this one. He was scared. All that noise, those colors… It was too much. When his bedroom [...]
You chant, plead and pour libations on tethered stones, call forth lost gems trampled beneath desecrated soil while palm trees wave to dried up sappy sap. Amulets are but charmed wishes, imaginary baits of burnt out fretful fishermen. Treasures are only worth a dime to the hungry. Listen to yourself converse as the sky sleeps, [...]
