The Emigree Flashcards Preview

Poetry Power and Conflict > The Emigree > Flashcards

Flashcards in The Emigree Deck (9)
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1
Q

There once was a country… I left it as a child

A

but my memory of it is sunlight-clear

2
Q

The worst news I receive of it cannot break

A

my original view, the bright, filled paperweight.

3
Q

It may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants,

A

but I am branded by an impression of sunlight.

4
Q

The white streets of that city, the graceful slopes

A

glow even clearer as time rolls its tanks

5
Q

That child’s vocabulary I carried here

A

like a hollow doll, opens and spills a grammar.

6
Q

It may by now be a lie, banned by the state

A

but I can’t get it off my tongue. It tastes of sunlight.

7
Q

I have no passport, there’s no way back at all

A

but my city comes to me in its own white plane.

8
Q

My city takes me dancing through the city

of walls.

A

They accuse me of absence, they circle me.

9
Q

My city hides behind me. They mutter death,

A

and my shadow falls as evidence of sunlight.