"The oil spill would advance"

The oil spill would advance

eating whole pieces of white bread

Teeth rotten the spill swallows

three-quarters of the bread

and the crumbs loosen

like a knot of intestine

The tide would slide

its slum water and seaweed

across the water's white body

Without a visa the blackened tide

is not even recognized by the sky

Convinced by the shushing waves

that all will be saved

the spill throws itself across the sea

But the bread does not like the nibbling at its torso

does not want its sides to be grazed like this

The bread begins shouting out

that it opposes such a race of teeth

Blacks on this tide have a laugh

are fed up with being fed to the sea

have a laugh as lines disappear from the rainbow

laugh at the puddle of drool on the white body

of the white bread

Source: Think of Lampedusa (University of Nebraska Press, 2017)