By Ama Poetry

How much harm can begin with the words “just one”? In “Just One,” Ama Poetry explores the consequences of seemingly harmless choices through images of bottles, bundles and trenches. The poem combines irony, repetition and political commentary to question responsibility, collective suffering and the limits of government intervention.

Ahhh,
Just one bottle—
Just
One.

Just one, you said,
As though one by one
Doesn’t make a bundle?

A bundle you can’t handle,
When the rains begin to handle
The bundles of the bundle
In the trenches you bundled.

Later, later, you sing:
“Gavumenti, Tuyambe!
Gavumenti, Tuyambe!”

As though Gavumenti
Bundled those bundles
With you!

But can you get here
If you truly cohere

The Gavumenti’s here-and-there
Sincere song to dispose of well on the sphere,
So you don’t interfere
With the sphere?