"In the light, the people glow a deep ember black, and it is warm warm warm. At one point in the road, every time I pass, I smell something like dark wood after it has been cut open. I am comfortable sitting in the middle back seat, nestled between two warm bodies, the car sounds rattling like a lullaby as we drive through this land.  

  Baobob trees and barbershop shanties, mechanics and somewhere a large gathering of people outside an open building--
  “Englais,” Ousmane Beye explains.   
They are gathering to learn English, broadcast over a megaphone in the falling darkness of night."




  "Hadim’s sister is undressed when we enter her room. This is ok. They have found ways to coexist in the space available. The men face the other side of the room, watching a television, while she bathes herself in cocoa butter, her delicious body smell on the air. She wraps herself in a white cloth. She finishes with some kind of body astringent and I want to drink her.

  She has a laugh and a voice set in sound like a low b note singing from a brass horn."






"Africa" is a 3,000 word essay in submission for publication. -May 2010