Once we had a flag we were proud of. In this land we’ve lost our searchfor a place to lay down the pain.The flag waving makes our hearts sink. Half-longing, half-dreading, we recite prayers should another day appear and find us choked with fear. Pleading. They whip us. Sing from the heart! But the heart …
The Sentence My father’s heart exhausted itself. Cardiac arrest, the cardiologist said. A man was arrested in my Ugandan village when I was a child. A few years later he was released, only to steal and get sentenced again. Release can mean its opposite—”stretch out again” from Latin. Acquire back. So, this catch-release-and-release went on …