Zahra Gordon

Today is the last day of poetry month and the 30-Day Challenge. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it all the way through to 30 poems, but it was still good to get these tiny pieces out of my system. I am compelled to write about the more than 200 girls kidnapped and missing in Nigeria, but that story is so painful to read and watch. I will come back to it. At the the very least, know that it is happening, has happened, whether you sign a petition or not; knowing that is happening, that it has happened is the first step to preventing it from happening again. 

I met an author I admired at Bocas Lit Fest this past weekend – Zimbabwean NoViolet Bulawayo. Her debut novel, We Need New Names tells the story of a Zimbabwean girl coming of age in America. Some critics have posited that Bulawayo, and other African authors, have created/are creating a new aesthetic of “African suffering” or are selling “poverty porn.” She dismissed those critics as lazy. The 200+ girls kidnapped at gunpoint in Nigeria, their families and friends are suffering. The parents whose children were not abducted, but who are now living in fear of that reality are suffering as well and they all live in Africa. What if Africa had a different, new name? What if this place wasn’t called Nigeria? Poem below. 

we shared the same space 

podium shattered by time 

do we need new names?