where the country could not follow
an opening in the ground bore water and fruit
from its mouth swam ships with human cargo
a passage of time where worlds met to trade stories, yam and sugarcane
but the country did not follow
riding in on barricades of opulence
grinning with jewel infested teeth
drooling everywhere
we were no kind of prey but watched as they’d salivate.
a woman walked into the water as if to baptise herself
her torso swallowed by the rippling depths
adjourned in sight of some segregated waste of land
to feed the birds.
they poured fuel on our nest to protest our very existence
but lost against our dear sentience
we’d held back waves the size of continents before
so stood strong against the gust of an islands tantrum
clutching our antenna to ancestral arms of hope.
a shopkeeper mutters to himself about hopscotch
as he’s immersed up to his braces in red sea
encroached on by metallic urchins.
we spoke parables in all our languages of church
knitted together like mosques and synagogues of people
a treasure asleep in our palms that could not be aroused for profit
sweet freedom slumber
where the willow touched the ground and whistled gospel in the ear of concrete
we rebuked all soulless oils spat at our mouths in detest
they could not contaminate our schools of loving
their spineless statues
rusty bronze in the guise of interstellar costs of living.
a playground of children scoop up handfuls of canal water
and begin inviting nature to the pool
nurturing chasms between capital deserts and life.
before their glory days of pillage
in graffiti and rain we channeled sunshine
when we were twins of the same womb
where moonlight hid from a weary genuflect
retiring from worship of shoddy council in shrouded towers
takeaway boxes swaddled by newspaper cuttings
strangled by poisoned headlines reporting “stolen jobs”
death-ideology from false prophets
but we dipped our toes in their murky words no more
fell asleep aside chalk drawings of families in lilac and turquoise
its grey dust swamped the air like sandstorms
once more we filled our bellies with the city
cradling the streets to sleep
where the country could not follow.