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”.