there are big silent ovals / on the outside of the air

because she is born into a fog that coaxes her hair / her heart heavenward / because in this country of her birth whiteboys spit hate like wads of paper through straws / their eyes tiny as seeds / leaving her choking    voiceless    shrinking /

People of the world / I regret to inform you, / I have not been expelled from my country. / I fought on the front lines,  / a shield-bearer in the dirty war / used as a cannon fodder / 

An old man pulls the wrinkles of his dark face back./ I’m badder than you, / he tells me, handing me my change / for the rooster. My black & white / speckled rooster: My amulet, / like a necklace of herbs, I never told my mother about.

Photo credit:  Alison V. Cartwright