In the Country of my Father
Jeremy T. Karn
there were chants, ones that began every civil war
& bodies being buried deep inside other bodies
because the country was choked with them
in 1980, like crops we sowed bullets in
the flesh of a president’s body
& reaped new presidents that promised
new & better civil wars
today we don’t wears this country like our favorite shirts,
memories are trapped inside our dermises
like blades sitting in them,
& there are dried stains of blood that made loud sound
whenever we peeled them from our lips
i am obligated to teach my little sister’s feet how to run,
because even Christ doesn’t know
the hour of the next running,
when the guns of this country will regain their voices
Jeremy T. Karn: "I write from somewhere in Liberia. My work has appeared in 20.35: Contemporary African Poets Volume III anthology, The Whale Road, The Rising Phoenix, Kalahari Review, African Writers, Praxis Online, Shallow Tales Review and elsewhere.
"My chapbook Miryam Magdalit has been selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani (The African Poetry Book Fund), in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2021 New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set."
