Bearing Heavy Things

included in Eight New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set

Akashic Books

The continuity between life closely observed and the larger lessons it holds gives the poems an intimate and grounded sense of justice. Indeed, one of the great gifts of this collection is the empathy it offers to those who walk innocently into forces they do not understand and which punish them for their lack of power. The poems stand with those whom injustice silences. This is particularly true for women caught in the constrictions of tradition, to whom the speaker offers her compassion and sense of unity.

Gabeba Baderoon, from the preface

Vanquishing Visions

A conjuror lives behind stone incense smoke
grayish-white turban
the scent of coffee in cotton folds she speaks, and my veins rush
magnetized, urged to break skin
but I, can be tough she says the stars leaked
and someone sat beneath them
absorbed their heat
she has a voice that makes things fester she throws lifelines
to drain marrow from our bones
and fade from sweet clouds and heavy lidded mornings

Liyou Libsekal, “Vanquishing Visions”