CON-FICTIONS AND CON-VERSE-ZIONS

A-dZiko Simba Gegele


Like the cruelty of clothes
belted
strapped
buttoned down
zipped up
these flat 
pressed women
ironed hard
metal smoothed
starched
of impulse
to tear 
or rip
or strip.
Stitched back
to front
restrictions
shore
convictions.

Leave

nothing left 
to flutter or flay.
No questions left 
to fray limp 
like rags 
bled out 
and tossed
upon a tree 
all carved 
and crossed
to hang
and thread
and flap 
and flag
defiant victory.

 

 

 

 

 

A-dZiko Simba Gegele is a writer, performer and storyteller recognized as a dynamic force on Jamaica’s spoken-word scene. Her debut novel, All Over Again, won the inaugural Burt Award for Caribbean Literature in 2014.