Poem
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Proximity
– for natalina angok
they are the women
whose bodies
don’t quite make front page
they are carefully measured outrage
when it happened
they weren’t walking home from a
white
collar job post friday night drinks
at a bar you recognise
and even if you learnt them
you forgot their names
after a while
here
search the photos
see their smiles
they were mourned by sliding scale
according to proximity
to –
damn that could have been me
don’t remind you
of your sisters girlfriends daughters selves
or wives
their faces bleed toward the staplefold
and their killer’s state of mind will matter
more than their coloured lives
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