Rain Choral
By 'Gbenga Adeoba
Imvepi refugee settlement, Uganda
Again, a child is the missing letter
in this algebra of grief,
slips out of the company of broken men
furling into a country of themselves.
I watch him meld into the loop of kids
gathered around a relief truck
in a procession of songs.
They join arms, hopping.
It is how they teach a quiet return to love,
these kids shedding weights
their bodies became too frail to bear.
Their litanies echo in the dark,
beseeching days ahead to be kinder.
Copyright Credit: ‘Gbenga Adeoba, "Rain Choral" from Exodus. Copyright © 2020 by ‘Gbenga Adeoba. Reprinted by permission of University of Nebraska Press.
Source: Exodus (University of Nebraska Press, 2020)