KWEE Liberian Literary Magazine Jan. Iss. Vol. 0115 May Issue Vol. 0515 | Page 21

Liberian Literary Magazine

Diaspora Poet

March Issue 0315

Althea Romeo-Mark

Uninvited
She can’t say no
to armed hitchhikers
in military uniforms
when they wave her down.
She could speed up
and feel the hail of bullets
slicing through the car frame,
piercing her body.
She wouldn’t live to tell the
story.
So she stops and smiles,
pretends to be polite,
even though she could be one
minute away from becoming a
ghost.
All four climb in.
Guns, pointing perilously out
windows,
gape at fleeting scenery.
Stone-faced soldiers stare
straight ahead as if on a
special mission.
She feels her knees
wobble under her skirt.
Her mind in overdrive,
she sees her body
like a large rice sack
lying on the roadside
next to firewood,
raped, mutilated, lifeless.

Born in Antigua, West
Indies, Althea Romeo-Mark
is
an
educator
and
internationally published
writer who grew up in St.
Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
She has lived and taught in
St. Thomas, Virgin Islands,
USA, Liberia (1976-1990),
London, England (19901991), and in Switzerland
since 1991.
She
taught
at
the
University of Liberia (19761990). She is a founding
member of the Liberian
Association
of
Writers
(LAW) and is the poetry
editor
for
Seabreeze:
Journal
of
Liberian
Contemporary Literature.

The voice beside her
cracks the silence,
interrupts her deathly vision.
“Stop, we getting down here,
ma.”

She was awarded the
Marguerite Cobb McKay
Prize by The Caribbean
Writer in June, 2009 for
short story “Bitterleaf, (set
in Liberia).” If Only the
Dust Would Settle is her
last poetry collection.

From Check Points and Curfews ©
Althea Mark-Romeo 11.06. 2009
www.liberiaseabreezejournal.com
© Althea Romeo-Mark 11.10. 10

She has been guest poets at
the International Poetry
Festival
of
Medellin,
Colombia
(2010),
the
21

Kistrech
International
Poetry
Festival,
Kissi,
Kenya (2014) and The
Antigua
and
Barbuda
Review of Books 10th
Anniversary
Conference,
Antigua and Barbuda (2015)
She has been published in
the US Virgin Islands,
Puerto Rico, the USA,
Germany, Norway, the UK,
India, Colombia, Kenya,
Liberia and Switzerland.
More publishing history can
be found at her blog site:
www.aromaproductions.bl
ogspot.com