Migwi Mwangi

The boy sprinting from Wa-Mso’s Shopping Center with a transparent plastic bag half-full of kerosene at sunset—past Big Spot Barber Shop, Think Twice Secondhand Clothes, through a rain of sparks from Samson’s Weldings, before disappearing between Johnnie Walker Keep Walking Pub and God’s Favorite Wines and Spirits—where is he flying to?

Artwork by Candice Evers Overthrown pink flamingo. Prone on its side. Luckily, plastic. Not a feathered crisis, just forgotten. Clementine-sized purple soccer ball. Poised at the pavement’s edge. No toddler to clutch it back. Paper petals of dead magnolia. Lilac layers blanket the grass. I look up to see if the tree misses them. Turtle at rest amid recently potted pansies. Ceramic preserves the gaze. Tired of patience, resilience. Rose bush with a late blush of color. Between pink and in love.

Migwi Mwangi is a storyteller from Nairobi. His work has been featured in Adroit Journal, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Qwani, Prairie Schooner, among others. He has received awards from the Poetry Society of America and Prairie Schooner, as well as a fellowship from the NYU MFA program. His first collection of poems, Desire Path, is forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press. He lives in New York City.