The Rank - Thato Angela Chuma

The city pours itself here;
within the damp smell of roasting maize,
sweat,
and the snores of taxis and combis
travelling on half-dressed roads.

The city meets itself here;
Where the air holds every scent
Where mothers find hope in their vegetables,
And everything is known to be cheaper–
‘A hub of solutions for poor people’
God does not exist here,
Only sweat

Here,
Many layers of survival
Meet in their silences
Many lives are stitched together
You meet the hustler, the dreamer, and the forgotten
And those that wander
In the spell of their lives.

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Thato Angela Chuma (born 1991) Botswana
Source: The Machinery