Gayaza Road
Photo: Matt Hoffman
Read by the author
A puddle sunk a young man
after a month of rain.
He spun the wheels of his sky
blue bicycle, back stacked
in yellow jerry cans
filled with gasoline,
until he didn’t.
Maybe it was a hole of his own making.
Maybe these streets swallow us whole
to keep our eyes down. However it happened,
his sinking made a great splash.
The city did not notice.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rohanna Ssanyu is a black, biracial, and diasporan writer born in Fairbanks to a mother from Kampala and father from southwest Missouri. Rohanna is the 1st prize winner of the 2023 Nutmeg Poetry Prize organized by the Connecticut Poetry Society. She lives and teaches in Connecticut, United States. Find Rohanna on Instagram.
