Khadro Mohamed
The Fine Print
Okay. So. I have some. News about the. Lady that got. Stabbed the other night. In MacAlister Park. She’d tried. To climb out of the dried-up creek. With her fingernails. But there was no use. She got stabbed. 13 times. By a man. Who lives. On the other side. Of Karori West. According to the. Dominion Post. And her blood. Coated the dead grass. He must have. Thought she was Muslim. But she wasn’t. She was an Ethiopian. Orthodox Christian. Who wore white cotton. On her head. That looked like a hijab from. Far away. I guess. That’s why he did it. I guess. When you’re. Full of hate. It blinds. You. And. You never read. The. Fine print. Do you?
Pink Lakes
all they know is the familiar sight
of unturned stomachs
sand-caked faces,
oversized, bloated bellies
jet-black eyes
sticky lashes
tinted curls with dust caught in between
broken tomato fields
houses made of earth
a heat that rises slowly
with an intensity that distorts the footprints
and turns leaves into coffee powder and
dehydrated calderas where lakes used to be
even now, the feeling of emptiness sticks to me
like hydrangeas on the inside of my veranda in the spring
like the deep brown undertones of my skin
if only baba could tell them that the earth that once
covered our home gave birth to flower fields
and entire forests that could swallow science whole
gravity-defying vines with pepper growing on the ends
that the sky dances only for us, leading us through
oceans, the long-winded tail of taniwha and capsized ships
if only they knew the kingdom that once ruled
this rich and vibrant land
has remnants scattered along the earth
feeding the mouths of hoards of goats
that carry stars in their bellies and
lute string in their U-shaped shoes
if only they could land on the shores
of pink lakes, baobab silhouettes
and lion calls.
Khadro Mohamed is a 20-something-year-old writer, coffee addict and photo enthusiast. She currently resides in Wellington, where she regularly battles with the wind. Her work has appeared in Milly Magazine, The Spinoff, Salient and Pantograph Punch, and her poetry zines We’re All Made of Lightning, Tides of Poneke, If I Go Back and Moon Musings (co-authored with Ronia Ibrahim) are available from Food Court Books in Newtown.