That There is Life after this Body/Border

there is  __a__ black sky hovering over my polity              

           [another]                                   [our]

& that is why  i     burn our hearts and  count                      

                      [we]                                [mop]

our brother’s          tears with ink           hoping/waiting  

      [country men]                                        [willing]

to escort its flames above the dark clouds                     

                    [fire]

praying  mother          into its flesh. last night           

             [a country]

i  saw          a bridge/god/future beckoning me  

   [mirrored]                                                  [us]

to cross this border/ body just like how father                                                             

                                                              [every dead man]

did, on the night patriotic bullets   escorted    his/their                                                     

                                                     [shattered]

forehead into the shadow. you see, this poem                          

is ____ a boy painting migration with another country’s skin. 

    [not]

the one i would   merge into  my    vessel 

                                           [their]

with legs and breath as cowries for bargain at the border 

of this country.                                                                           

            [hell]