The day I left home
I took a small stone
And put it in my pocket
I did not book a ticket for it on the flight
But in its kernel, it carried the world
That I was leaving behind
Fossilized into its memory
Now it sits in a small glass jar on my desk—
A stone fish in a waterless bowl
And each time I think of home
I take it out and rub it
Its texture mirrors the hills and valleys
Of that place that nearly broke me so far away
But it is still dear home.
Also by this poet:
Christopher Mlalazi a writer from Zimbabwe and the author of the three novels, Running With Mother (2012) which has been translated into German, Italian, and Spanish, They Are Coming (2014), The Border Jumper (2019), and the short story collection Dancing With Life: Tales From the Township (2008). He is the co-winner of the 2008 Oxfam/Novib PEN Freedom of Expression Award for the play The Crocodile of Zambezi, and an alumni of the Caine Prize Workshop, International Writing Program (IWP), Nordik-Africa Institute (Sweden), Casa Refugio (Mexico City), and a former Feuchtwanger fellow (USA) and Hannah-Ardent Scholar (Germany). His forthcoming speculative fiction novel, LANGABI, will be published by Jacana Media (South Africa) at the end of 2022.