Miss, why should i read?
Movies are so much better.
You see everything.

But what you can’t see
is the imagination
that invents the world.

Without reading books
who’d have written your movies,
given light to life?

fast-paced agreement
from Arabic-spewing mom–
he sighs, won’t give in

not five minutes pass
toothless, frumpy, loving mom
begs me to help her

why does her girl fail?
is it because of the shots
she saw as a child?

or her tent life,
her journey across the sea?
but what can we do

but cry out to God
and ask him to help us live?
then i remember

yes–a book i read
Wait–were you in Kakuma?
Yes–for nineteen years

tears swallow my throat
harrowing Lost Boy story
chronic refugee

sitting before me
(brutal book’s truth seeping in)
hope swallows her whole

i wish i could share
the beauty behind pages
that connect us all

if i could show him
the open-eyed life of words
oh, how he could fly!

ironic night ends
with her heart-wrenching handshake
pages of my book