By Joyce Ashuntantang
Today I will be at the airport to bid you goodbye
You will be dressed in your ancestral confidence
A worthy emissary of our people to their people
You will squeeze my hand discreetly because you
Speak the language of bodies too
Before the hands untangle you would utter
Words profound to fill my
Woven basket of desired memories
In my car I will unpack your words
and hang them on lines of shared moments
Waiting for the sunshine of recall
When I get home I will court sleep
To dream of the eagle on flight,
The one whose flapping wings
Float our ideals beyond our earth
And douse our fires with new words wet with
the defiance of oppressed humanity
Freeing the tight chains of tyranny’s reign
But today is still young and the sun
is smiling with the intensity of youth
Burning the weight of waiting on my skin
Tonight will never come and tomorrow neither
The airport is a space between my head and feet
Delirious with your impending “goodbye”.