For Professor Harry Garuba You are in a lime green, waterproof jacket hooded. Restlessly standing on the pavement— overhead: grey concrete around you: vapour— on a street that resembles the Sunday-vacant ones in Jozi (although, the dream calls the street Lagosian, we tell it we believe it by continuing). It is misty. After you […]
Tag Archives: poem
Writing Zong!
This is Marlene Nourbese writing towards the end of Zong!, in an epigraph of sorts: To not tell the story that must be told, I employed a variety of techniques: —I white out and black out words (is there a difference?). —I mutilate the text as the fabric of African life and the lives of […]
Poems for Easy-Reading When You are Alone
We partly undid our clothes–there weren’t many As it was in divine burning July. Enjoyment of flesh through Half-torn clothes; Quickly bared flesh; apparition Twenty-six years passed; and now returned To remain in this poem — “To Remain” by C.P. Cavafy Come to me in dreams, that I may live My very life again though […]
I Like…I Like…I Like…
I like a crowded world. I like rooms, with or without windows. I like things in rooms. I like the color grey. I like ash and mud. I like the phoenix. I like corn cobs hanging down from the fire place. I like deserted homelands. I like portraits with invisible faces. I like blindness. I […]
Welcome to Brittle Paper, your go-to site for African writing and literary culture. We bring you all the latest news and juicy updates on publications, authors, events, prizes, and lifestyle. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram (@brittlepaper) and sign up for our "I love African Literature" newsletter.
