in this country, there’s no sweetness here

Photo: Mohammed Nasim

for victims of genital mutilation,

 the scars now hurt more than from the deep cutting

in your body.

there are cries inside you

 in search of a small door like your mouth.

somewhere in you –

 yesterday’s memories still roam.

i bet you had missed the sight of your childhood's river

growing into a huge stone,

i bet you now hate the touch of blade

on your foreskin.  

maybe some cultures live in cut bodies.

so, you felt the warmness of blade on a skin;

the sharp cut between your thighs.

but there's no sweetness in it,

there’s no sweetness in this country.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeremy T. Karn writes from somewhere in Liberia. His work had appeared and forthcoming in 20.35: Contemporary African Poets Volume III anthology, The Whale Road, Ice Floe Press, ARTmosterrific, Lolwe, Cypress Press, The Minute Magazine, Feral Poetry, Liminal Transit Review, The Remnants Archive, The Kissing Dynamite, Rigorous Magazine, Walled City Journal, and elsewhere.

His chapbook (Miryam Magdalit) has been selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani (The African Poetry Book Fund), in collaboration with Akashic Books, for the 2021 New-Generation African Poets chapbook box set. He tweets @jeremy_karn96