Here, with marula trees and neighbourhood
tuck-shops, and grandmothers
like my grandmother
whose waists change colour daily
between chitenge. Pata patas
wet with rain-
smell soil. The most gorgeous rains.
Wouldn't these be the most gorgeous rains
if rains were known for being gorgeous?
Below the thin line of the equator
and above, lush and prayer-answered
rains. Summers alight with braais. And streets with names
like ours – Makeba, Nkrumah, Maathai, Kaunda. Brenda Fassie
and the music of our generation. Mtukudzi and our parents’
music. The music and what it does in us. I was born,
then watched the rest of this world happen. In the Botswana
of this world, past the Western bypass,
past the Immigration building, past the next
traffic light, there is a house. On the third shelf,
of the display case in the living room is a picture
of me in primary school uniform with pigtails
and a bunny-toothed smile that need
not do anything but keep smiling.
Contributor Notes
Akosua Zimba Afiriyie-Hwedie is a Zambian-Ghanaian poet who grew up in Botswana. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. She is the author of Born in a Second Language (forthcoming 2021), winner of Button Poetry's 2019 Chapbook Contest. She placed 3rd in Palette Poetry’s Emerging Poet Prize and is a winner of a Hopwood Award and a Meader Family Award. She is a finalist of The Brunel International African Poetry Prize, The Palette Poetry Spotlight Award, The Furious Flower Poetry Prize and Wick Poetry Center's Peace Poem contest. Akosua has received fellowships from the Helen Zell Writers' Program, Callaloo and the Watering Hole. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in PANK, Obsidian, Wildness, Birdcoat Quarterly and elsewhere. She is currently working on her first poetry collection. Visit her at akosuaZah.com.
