Gabrielle Spear​

papaoutai

like so many in this hill-studded land          we are here to forget
       at home       my sister           beaten by her not-father
            begs god       to bring back her namesake     
while we dance     drink in hand        numbed by the rhythm of a man 
    still searching for his dad     a country’s battle cry
       we thought we could escape       hail a moto
drive off into the sunset without looking back
     silly muzungus        the spies are watching you
the bruised men finally ready to speak of their crimes
             don’t you know          even the killers
shared songs & primus
               before they raped the village

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Gabrielle Spear is a poet, community organizer, and educator based in Queens and raised in Northwest Arkansas. She was named a Goucher College Kratz Summer Writing Fellow, a finalist in LUMINA's 2017 Borders and Boundaries Nonfiction Contest judged by Leslie Jamison, and a Brooklyn Poets Fellow. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Matador Review, The Indianapolis Review, fields magazine, and The Sonora Review among others.