Whether they made you
Deliberately mixing particles
Or you came into being
Just like that, it does not matter now
Like girls getting pregnant
Before marriage in a
Conservative society
And abandoning the kid
The white people
And the yellow ones
Deny having anything
To do with you
With spokes to cling on somewhere
You bounce around
Spreading sickness and fear
Sometimes Death
People talk philosophy
They want to live long
On this O shaped planet
Don’t be disowned
Don’t be unwanted
Being born on the wrong side
Of society far from the press
The hallowed Courts
From justice
From crowds supporting
Politicians, the stewards of
Businessmen who are the real powers,
I know the pain of rejection
So come invisible one
The tar in my smoker’s lungs
Is spread out
Like a lace mantilla
To conceal you
To live there and throw out
The oxygen that comes in
With every breath
Staying there, not leaving
But with me
To a world where
Dregs like me
Are ingested to the full.
—Lakshmi Bayi