This morning
She saw her brother
Talking to a boy
From Shanty Town.
Her brother rubbed his eyebrows.
He asked the boy to say again
The words he’d repeated
Three times already.
‘Just believe in yourself,’ the boy said.
‘In myself?’ her brother asked.
The boy nodded several times.
‘Which self?’ her brother asked.
‘I don’t know,’ the boy said. ‘I heard it watching tv through someone’s window.’
‘My dreams?’ her brother asked. ‘My laugh?
The hunger that’s always in my stomach?
The scares on my hands.
The bruises on my legs.
The pain in my side is getting worse.
Can you catch fish?
Will you care for my sisters?
The rainy season is coming.'
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