with a line from Safia Elhillo
home is
a name, a poet
said. everywhere
my body
has laid down—
nameless.
my lost places
sutured
carelessly,
my lost places
touched
by empires
in the night.
my body
a basilect
ancient
& inarticulate.
my mouth
a sarcophagus
for language,
my true name
a cadaver
adorned in savagery.
i am west
of my origin.
blackness is
synonymous
with barbarity.
i am west
of the history
of who i am.
my country
is a stranger
and here i am,
a stranger
to my country
wanting a stranger
to reach out
and touch me.
