Home Coming of the Been -To

Chika Unigwe


My been-to cousin came home yesterday

Seven leather suitcases , made in Italy, bought in England, bulging with goods
from Abroad:

drugs to keep her from falling ill on our water

packets of cereal to fill her stomach

For how can you trust our food?

detergent to wash out our dust

Which possessively hugs and fiercely clings on

spoiling the freshness of American-shopped clothes

My been-to cousin came home yesterday

In blue jeans trousers

and a pair of Nikes

And the heat caught her "quite by surprise!"

 

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