Sarah Lubala

6 Errant Thoughts on Being a Refugee

1
on the worst of my days
this body
is a gimcrack-vessel
no more than two lungs and
a tremor
nailed to salvaged wood

2
grief traveled with me
across the Ubangi river

i prayed love and all her cognates
on the passage over:
libet (to please)
lips (to be needed)
lyp (to beg)

i arrived with
bruised knees
wet hair
a mouth-full of salted fish

3
i am so
hungry
hungry
hungry
for holiness
for communion
for a God you can sink
your teeth into

4
i was raised on
the Congolese-gospel
i can teach you how to forget
where you’re from
to worship the wide road before you
hands open
like this:
make each palm
a letter
to the sky

5
Beni
is a town
with one police station
airport
market
many graves

i should go back
my people are weeping

6
‘home’
is a narrow bed to sleep in