When we tell - Loa Niumeitolu

I know English was brought
by White people to our country.

Since I met You, I'm not afraid - Frances Angermayer

Look, God, I have never spoken to You,
But now I want to say, "How do you do?"
You see, God, they told me You didn't exist.
And like a fool I believed all this.

The Gazelle Incident - Jack Lahui

Due north-east from here,
in the land of tremors and eruptions,
the police stood like the Spartans,

White Shame - Adel Khozam

The sentence was uttered in its entirety
Why did you not believe it
The sentence?

An Alien Land - Muhammad Salih

They invite me to breakfast in another language.
Like a blind man in the streets of the city
They lead me in only three or four words of another language.

Humankind - Magtymguly Pyragy

Whether asleep or awake, he will always keep in his mind,
Whatever work is chosen by humankind,
The grief of being poor won’t make you depressed,
If a man becomes a beggar wishing to have a wife.

Straying Far From Myself - Ami Lhago

If you look back
Maybe you would see
Yourself

They Came Tonight - Léon Damas

They came the night the
tom
tom
spun from
rhythm
to
rhythm

Day-to-day - Carmen González Huguet

“Yet we want to return to the place we love.

And if God lets us live, we’ll return to eat

corn-on-the-cob fresh from the field,

if we are given the chance…”

Salvadoran refugee, April 1986

And of course,

despite the bloodshed,

life went on

tying its laces.

I've gone - I come - Trefossa

if the dry season wind starts singing
in Mahogany Street:
- Creole, how?
I'll answer:
- here am I
- granny's bench has been set ready
- once upon a time ... once upon a time ...