That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am.

Sixo say freedom is that

way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

Page | 1

no church
in the wild
stowaways and the elite,
immigrants in the new diaspora:
on ancestors, aliens
& androids inter alia.

amma birago

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

Page | 2

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

Page | 3

become of us
dear Patsey on jumping ship and skin.

the underground railroad. you have to find your own way, pay most cases, costs
an arm and a leg, or then pray, pray for the going passport and visa with new
false names, all kinds and manner of cargo liberal laissez faire and laissez passer
or standardized tests and college applications, the underground railroad, or the
overpass and the flyover airlifting the fortunate, fortunate to not have been born
in this here ghost country, to a ghost couple, but there, over there, yonder and
beyond, overseas, born there and not here, the underground railroad whispers in
the dark in the corn, undertone but urgent because soon and very soon comes the
softly clanging signal in the days when the moon half empty, low and touching
yonder. this here signal not for those here because grandmother, because
mothers in-laws, not for those from here but not of here,

thank god, thank god, praise god not of here, their fortune and not misfortune,
their survival and options not tied to this place, they are airlifted from this place,
from this place where faux citizenship and from where citizens give both arms
and legs to get away, this place no place, this place ghost of a country, a refugee
camp where beggarly hordes stranded straddle, a transit spread broad and artless
from pillar to post, from border to border, hoping angels flyover with ticket in
hand, boarding pass clutched enable jumping ship, jumping skin, options like
good butter spread broad and diverse, where plantations with master workers
union, high income

and good tax bracket, where more respectful masters smart, benevolent enough
to impose, harness, cart and hearse way before the horse, defense, social and
security taxes, all manner of sacrifices, so that work, work, work and better living

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

conditions,
Page | 4 mortgage and purchasing power, grand slave quarters back to back to
back and in rows, pied - - terre like mansions in strangled suburbia utopia,
manicured lawns, decked and prettified, work, work, work, occupation now and
new identity, profession now creed and new custom, identity drained of brain and
its accompanying heart,

work, work, work, and so that disposable and stellar income in dollars solid and
sterling brand new. away, away, away, get away from here, preaches the
underground railroad, away from here where in reality a refugee camp spread
broad and artless from pillar to post, border to border, a refugee camp in disguise
as continent and countries cut out like cupcakes chewed up in colonial mouths
framed by moustache handlebars,

colonial mouths where dark continent plunged in foreign gut and gullet dark,
creepy and seedy alleyways, where no light, feels like no water, no power however
light at the end of the tunnel, north of here, free north where boarding pass, flight
and landing card, where on arrival rinse mouth of maternal tongue, strangle,
drain brain of nostalgia, the underground railroad freedom stars and spangled
banner in his eyes half mast, because free north, free north, he repeats and on
arrival forget coming back to where no country, here where haunting by country
ghost tentacles, stay there where a country in the making, in the shaping, shifty,
shady, shape shifting, jim crow, jumping ship and jumping skin.
dear Patsey, what will become of us?

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

Page | 5

i waited for you

you could not hold on
not with where you stood
not with where you found yourself
with me you trusted the water
more than you trusted yourself
drowning will be kinder to me
water in my lungs while you turned around
paid our debts took more losses
more truth and more fire for you
pure fire while water in my lungs
and knowing that you will find me
and let me know
that i waited for you.

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

cool
cat,| 6pussyfoot
Page
and tropical tin roof
chewing stick they stare development down
where their grandparents left off because at doctors adobe
and humble abode, in doctors ladys arms and on her straw mat,
music on hot tin roof like world war two abandoned steel drum and pan barrels
turned upside down and musicking cross atlantic.

doctors house mediates the clinic and the albatross of the living dead, the
dying life and vegetation which surrounds sound, life and system. his
chief of staff and village compound, round faced beauty village girl with
threaded hair ten tentacle horns and the rain like a halo drum circle on a
hot tin roof acoustic, in doctors house, the penetration strong and
certainly invited and under kerosene lamp greys anatomy for tropical
world and medicine red sea divided, explored, while outside, the
children, blissfully distended and bandy legs, ochre hair from wild play
and red dirt roads and their parents, chewing stick they stare
development down where their grandparents left off because at doctors
adobe and humble abode, in doctors ladys arms and on her straw mat,
music on hot tin roof like world war two abandoned steel drum and pan
barrels turned upside down and musicking cross atlantic.
doctors house mediates the clinic, the albatross of the living dead and
the dying life and vegetation which surrounds sound, life and system.
and the rain drum circle on a hot tin roof acoustic
cross atlantic doctor resident doctor tropical medicine, his arm propped
by his right hand man, round faced beauty village girl hair brazilian
weave woven on and nursing assistant on the night shift, she mediates
the coming f his career and their homecoming one day in the long and
distant future, marital bed lacklustre rivaling abandoned straw mat in
amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

village
and square, well and pump water, no power, the old ones
Page |scene
7
and the not so old, ochre scenery of earth rising, they are attendants to
mailbox empty, new email accounts minus father christmas and
telephony messages cross atlantic and jouissance far and in between for
those who stare development down where their grandparents left off,
they wonder at the coming and going memories of doctors house music
on hot tin roof like world war two abandoned steel drum and pan barrels
turned upside down and musicking cross atlantic ...
doctor and mrs long for such days long gone when doctors house
mediates the clinic, the albatross of the living dead, the dying life and
vegetaion which surrounds sound, life and system. and the rain drum
circle on a hot tin roof acoustic they despite these days cross atlantic
doctor resident doctor tropical medicine, his arm propped by his
righthand man, round faced village girl hair brazilian weave woven on
and nursing assistant on the night shift, she mediates the coming of his
career and their homecoming one day in the long and distant future,
marital bed lacklustre rivaling as abandoned straw mat in village scene
and square, well and pump water, no power.
well, doctor is now cool cat on a hot tropical tin roof and both mrs. and
doctor do the dance pussyfooting memories comfortably tropical tin
roof comfortably repressed, unlike the days when marital bed happening,
doctors house mediates the clinic and the albatross of the living dead,
the dying life and vegetation which surrounds life and system.
fast forward in no time at all . doctor and mrs, grandchildren in tow
still do the dance to the no music, industrial clay rooftops and upscale
neighborhood, where beauty clutching pearls threatens to choke the life
out of you.
amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

Page | 8

english marmalade
dreams brownstone, alien and indigo
undocumented sounds so bureaucratic, unromantic and handout
bound.
i like them alien, illegal will do, illegal, out of bounds, untouchable
...
they come their dreams unhinged in their eyes, their wits about
them heightened, enlivened, vibrating, fresh ... their families and
two wives back home hanging about their necks like a sweet
noose, the voodoo of those who gave their lives for his pillar to
post and nothing short of miraculous stowaway passage to florida
a talisman in his breast pocket.
undocumented sounds so bureaucratic, unromantic and handout
bound.
i like them alien and indigo while we are at it; boldly different,
casually, unintentionally diffident, unguardedly seductive, his
used to be and at times ashy hands from raw and hard work,
reverently ask permission in code, the raw stare of his eyes
broken in two seeing you see him, recognize him, deliver his
name via west african tongue, deposit within earshot, seydou
amadou asks in broken english-french accentuated for directions
to the nearest ymca and suddenly, finally, your mother's woes of
'marry my daughter give me' to stiff corporate cuff links in alien's
presence finally laid to rest.
seydou amadou, alien and indigo, the halfway house sparse room
and board in which he is tucked, an upgrade from the barn in the
country orange grove, heart break hotel, oranges crawling in
amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

heaps
Page |on
9 the grounds of the plantations, their burial grounds,
harvested and to be sent seville and spit-shine to deluxe grocery
stores in manhattan not any different from the ones
buck eyed and wild, discriminated against, tossed as unfit,
asymmetrical and too oval for round.

undocumented sounds so bureaucratic, unromantic and handout

bound.
indigo and still alien, praying five times a day, seydou amadou
makes love to you twice a day; he makes love for his own
rejuvenation, to the brownstone of his dreams, bypassing caress
because you are touchstone, bypassing french colonial kissing
because to the man who knows oranges from california to florida,
you are chief blogger of the english marmalade which he now
makes and exports, abandoned, biological clock and long
forgotten harbor now pillow talk and steady importer of his raw
leather, slow-paced, heavy-footed and handcrafted expertise of
sunny climes and terracotta lands.

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

Page | 10

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"

That way." Halle was pointing over the stable. "Where he took my ma'am. Sixo say freedom is that
way. A whole train is going and if we can get there, don't need to be no buyout."
Toni Morrison. Beloved

no church
in the wild

Page | 11

stowaways and the elite,

immigrants in the new diaspora:
on ancestors, aliens
& androids inter alia.
amma birago

amma birago

"Hush, hush. Somebody's calling my name. Hush, hush.

Somebody's calling my name. O my Lord, O my Lord, what shall I do?"