THIRD SONNET


is not about you. I am capable 
of drafting these winds in my chest. Ease my mouth into 
even newer music. I am as a crow in 
a basket of French fries: sudden slow the drip 
of me inside you. There was another set of persons 
who might have otherwise obliterated a small nation 
but instead insisted on a walk, considered 
a dog— and moved on. The statue I’m eyeing 
in this country would have wanted me dead or 
at the very least deeply unhappy. This is not another race poem 
but often I look at us and cosplay radicalism. 
Can I lie to you quickly? I have never wanted another 
version of events. This is my best life. All my life 
is with you even on Tuesday.



Tawanda Mulalu was born in Gaborone, Botswana. He mains Ken in Street Fighter.