Subsaharviska by Marta Święcek
lately i’ve been writing
peaceful poetry: as if the earth
weren’t a raw-wrist shackled whirling
wreck smashing through
speed limits, as
if species weren’t going
extinct fast as chemical-filled
semi-toxic candy we give our
children (it makes them
happy)
as if family upon
family weren’t starving and
starved in africa, asia, the caribbean, those
developing countries whose grimy
skeletal reaper hands we hastily
force off our well-ironed
business suits, like that beggar
down the street, cigarettes bloodshot
eyes hands more
open than your orthodox
mind – he has a name, you
know.
lately, i’ve been thinking silly
thoughts: how i want to save
the world. scribbling poetry instead
of writing petitions and leading
marches and pretending
it’s the 60s, when people
still had hope (says the
textbook, see i aced that
test but what good can that
possibly be to anyone
else?)
Camille Thigpen has resided in Pennsylvania, Sweden, and is currently based in France, although she is beginning her freshman year at Bard College (New York). Her true home, writing, is one she never intends to leave.
