To a Pen -- Reesom Haile, translated by Charles Cantalupo
Hey pen,
Please give me a light
For this candle.
Look at that haystack.
Where's the needle?
Look at this other heap
Where Africa is lost
Like a tiny bead of truth
In the sweepings
Of too many limbs and bodies
Hacked by machetes,
Mowed by hunger and disease,
Rotted in jails
And fenced off by oblivion,
When she could be
Happily raising her children.
