Another Time

By Clementine Burnley

 

This is the life that will not be

What I imagined for you and me

I have gathered information

Groped for truth

Hoped for a way to reconcile

Irreconcilable things

And found a sober present certainty

 

In another life

You spun, sucked, swam

Learned the pure sensation

Of the liquid world

In another future

You experimented

In the confinement of my borders

 

This is not the plan

Not the life I choose for us

Make no judgments

No assumptions of how things were

For you and me

When I loved you

And let you go until another time

______________________________

Clementine Burnley is a Cameroonian writer, editor, activist, and mother to three reflective and wise young women. She has worked as a (critical) development researcher and consultant for long periods in England, Italy and Germany. In her work and life, she continues to learn from the people around her how to live joyfully within the white supremacist system.