Andrea Mbarushimana – poetry

A n d r e a M b a r u s h i m a n a

TODAY (FOR UKRAINE)

There’s a bomb in my tumble dryer the cars are full of streets, collected in panic I look around our home at photos that we hung against today and hope the walls can keep the faces of my babies safe

Today I’m busy shedding all my pages re-learning trust like puppy in a house full of strange hands I have given my passport details out to strangers sung lullabies to men with firearms

It makes me laugh that last week if you’d asked I would have sworn I’d rather starve than eat out of a rubbish can

Today I am packing my children into brown cardboard like Amazon parcels hoping to be delivered into safe hands only, the roads are knotted people are gathered into murmurations we are a wailing vortex of unmoored plans

Today we chose between our wants and needs Tell me, where is that tutorial livestreamed? My mind keeps running back, over the scarf left on the back of the cupboard door my lost mother gave me

I have no language suitable for today My tongue is a shoe, I’m licking miles that taste like pitch, I’m pitched out of my life I’ve swallowed my pride so many times when a stranger serves us soup I look into the bowl and vomit tears