1 New Poem

For Freetown

I wish one day your feet will run
as river basins, flowing that war across
again in punched-up signs the mapmakers always
neglect to trace, as long as sun shines
from then on.

I wish one day you will take to air,
helium gas drowning out this wretched
fear of vowed parchment, this cocoon
blanket of outgrown clothes, worn away
theatre poises.

I wish for once, your arms might open
to gather breathless the sand grain
hourglasses leave behind in burnished
rubber reflections.

I wish, just once, your eyes to
come upon ocean’s light, night’s
death at the steer-round clockface,
hands all asunder.

I wish, one time, you saw the
sleep that could have been with
greater grace, sweeter words,
beside not yourself

but something more.