Letter from a Refugee
By Fayia Sellu, California, USA.
Dear Motherland,
I writhe in depression
In this glorified servitude
Of my adopted land
I will never be native
To this human marsh
By choice, I stumped
Your sour milk
For greener pasture
Now, I choke on pesticide
Here, I am free
To be a maggot
On dry asphalt
Baking in debt
Hope stacked on hope
Flickers of opportunity
In extant forays
Lurching just enough
To rekindle more dreams
WHATEVER
I don’t care anymore
Dreams embrace nightmares
Frolicking buoyantly
On the rivers of my refugeedom
From concussions of my soul
Resignation leaps out
My ulcers are festering
With self-loathing
I never could have felt
In the hamlets of Luawa
Relics of slave holding cells
Canalling King Jimmy, Bunce Island
Never, in God’s artistry
Of sinewy hills, immaculate beaches
From Aberdeen to Sherbro Land
Even as peasant stock.
Yours-not-very- truly,
Fayia Sellu of Kailahun.
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