Agoloso Presents - Atondido Stories Agoloso Presents - Mama Mada | Page 194

Mama Mada
Five Unusual Things by Kath y Pim lo tt
You open the quarter-lights, get out of the car.
‘Five minutes’ you say ‘and while I’m gone,
look for five unusual things’. And I’m alone
on a back street of workshops and offices.
No-one appears. There are no balloons,
no burglaries. Nothing disturbs the street.
Two thirds up the warehouse wall
the brick course swivels ninety degrees,
three fanciful rows and then back
to a sensible horizontal.
I breathe on the window, draw a face
that fades with the clearing mist,
breathe again and it reappears.
Years later, when you’ve been gone forever,
seeing a sign for invisible menders,
I say for you, ‘you don’t see many of those.’
Misery by Am ina Daud a Ose m e
To put me out of misery
Would be to take me
Down the market square and leave me there.
For these people, scorched under heat
Chatter as if they have oil wells
Brewing in their wings.
But to see me live
Would mean trips
Down polished rooms,
Dancing on dead nights.
And troubled sleep.
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