1. Storm
Lightning from an early morning summer storm cut the sky in two
Seconds before it struck outside my window
I try to convince myself that the tragedy is the broken flowerpots
the scorched earth
Not
that it missed striking me by mere inches.
2. Game
If it’s a game of chance,
then why do you never lose?
If it is just luck, then why are we always the unlucky?
You gamble with our lives like we are chess pieces.
The sacrifice plays are so easy to make.
You leave us scattered and broken,
puzzle pieces that will never fit.
You made life a game in which the odds are never in our favour.
In your world, fortune turns its head away from us
always in landing jail,
never getting out free.
You cry loss but hold all the cards
and when I point it out
you say:
“It’s just a game
Stop playing the race card!”
3. Media
The screen says
I can wound you without a weapon
I can kill you
without spilling a drop of blood.
About the author
An emerging multilingual writer, Rafeif Ismail is committed to creating stories which explore the rich diversity of this continent, hoping that one day there can be stories told in all mediums that all people can relate to. Her current goal is creating works that blend the traditional elements of the arts of her home country of Sudan with elements of classic and contemporary western arts. She is the winner of the 2017 Deborah Cass Prize for Writing with the short story ‘Almitra Amongst Ghosts’. In 2017, Rafeif’s short story ‘Light at The End’ was published along with the works of three other emerging African writers in the anthology Ways of Being Here, a joint project of the Centre for Stories and Margret River Press. She is currently working on her first novel and hopes to also write for theatre and screen. She can be found exploring Twitter @rafeifismail.