Assistant Managing Editor Bess Winter: As someone who grew up in Toronto, I admire Akumbu Uche’s keen ability to convey the dichotomy that the city—one of the most multicultural on the planet and one with a reputation for being a difficult place to connect with other people—embodies. In these poems, Uche masterfully captures both the absurdity and isolation of diaspora in a giant urban space.
Listen to Uche read “Dating in the Abroad”:
Dating in the Abroad
Listen
Dating a Nigerian man in Toronto
Will give you hypertension
Eze had me buying his kid sister’s wedding dress
With all the points I saved on my Scotia card
Baby, I’ll pay you back when I get my tax returns
Yet he had enough money for Ethiopian Airlines
Flying all the way to Enugu to deliver it himself
It was Amarachi who sent me the hashtag
I clicked to see Eze’s new bride
Dancing in the David’s Bridal dress I picked out in June.
Listen to Uche read “My Fellow African”:
My Fellow African
Nigeria?
Squeals my pickup from Pearson Airport.
My fellow African!
Libya! He points to himself.
If he had seen me in the sandy streets of his village,
I wonder,
Would he have felt the same?
Listen to Uche read “On my way to the cinema”:
On my way to the cinema
The Uber driver taking me to Cineplex
says since he came to this country,
he hasn’t watched a movie,
eyes the faded Canada Goose
I found at Value Village,
almost hisses,
Some of us have to work.
Akumbu Uche is a Nigerian writer. Her most recent publications can be found at Brittle Paper, The Lagos Review, and Sprinng. She curates Adiba Creatives, a newsletter featuring opportunities for African creatives and culture workers.
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