and the journalist bends to ask if the world were listening, what would you say to it? she wants nothing but newspaper to line her bag, a new teapot, & blood to stop spilling / the guardian calls it ethnic cleansing / says these sudanese arabs are bloodletting, rising up against sudanese africans / it confuses me / at night sometimes i imagine a sudan that isn’t disappearing / doesn’t look splintered by the two niles / the country where they both meet, hold the longest kiss in history / when i ask my family about darfur, about revolution, it’s: we can’t know for sure / i mean do you believe american media / i mean they’re doing this to themselves / i mean he’s a fine president / i mean it’s not his fault, it’s the people under him / i mean we are not being complacent / i mean forgive us for our ignorance / all we want is to live peacefully / our water clean & electricity to stay on through the night / sudan isn’t like anywhere else / here we know patience / a country where everyone & no one is dying / i mean the world is opening up to us / i mean we’ve never seen proof / i mean it’s been 30 years of waiting / maybe this is what we’ve been waiting for / millions marching down shari’ al matar / the morning of eid a massacre / i mean many sudans will be mourning / our children scattered like fallen bird feathers around the world / the color blue never being the same / i mean hope tastes bitter / like soot / i mean who do we believe? / i mean Allah knows everything / i mean to say i don’t know for sure
On Sudan National TV, a Woman Appears in Darfur
Feature Date
- August 10, 2024
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Copyright © 2024 by Dalia Elhassan.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Dalia Elhassan is a Sudanese-American poet and writer living in NYC. Her work has been featured in The Kenyon Review, SUNU Journal and most recently in the New-Generation African Poets Series (Sita) with her chapbook, In Half Light (2019, Akashic Books & African Poetry Book Fund). She is a recipient of the Hajja Razia Sharif Sheikh Prize for nonfiction and was shortlisted for the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize. She can be found online @daliaelhassan.
Spring 2024
Ann Arbor, Michigan
University of Michigan
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