New poetry from Dujie Tahat, excerpted from Arcturus magazine, April 2018.
colossus, with cranes in the sky
after Gwendolyn Brooks
I had to watch the law ride away on a bicycle
in order to speak openly about hunger
with a quiet man in all the clothes he owned
sitting next to me on a park bench
near the fading federal courthouse
where my lawyer asked me
about the details of my case
on the elevator ride down.
It’s amazing how many euphemisms
for deportation you can fit in a single elevator
ride. By the time the man next to me
offers me his sandwich, my lawyer
is long gone.
…continue reading at our sister publication, Arcturus.
