Poem-A-Day #66 : Political Poem No.2

Political Poem No.2

The book ends with a scene of a woman and a man in the rain
her pregnant belly revealed - her sudden acceptance of the way the wind blows

He looks at her and begs her for status

And in that rain - the book bleeds off the page - her pregnant belly
is the room you are sitting in - hard with life - pulsing in the sounds of cloud

And this book from Mozambique across 14 years of translation

Opens the door into something - a pit - a sort of repetition of thought
it prolongs the moment and shortens it - is this universe his

That there is no clear answer to that question is perhaps the literal end of colonialism

And that the answer is not as simple as yes or no - is also a sign
that there is no end - that there is never an end - that rising begets collapsing

Tired from the climb and the balancing

• The scene described is form the book The First Wife by Pauline Chiziane