by Isabel Harper & Chiedza Chikanza

another one of us died today 

but they won’t talk about it 

they won’t say her name

not  really

and if they do they’ll use her

like a tool to be discarded

she’s not a person

she’s a lesson to be learnt

her forgotten history 

the being with no face

no prints to trace her back to the place 

from which she was stolen 

a star fell from the sky today

dragged into the vacuum of space

extinguishing fires with hands like black holes 

smothering light in our galaxies 

there are a hundred billion trillion of us 

they think we won’t notice 

whole constellations gone dark 

the universe moves on

we are supposed to accept it

Orion without its stars

taken from the night 

that should have been ours

another one of us was found today 

her wounds left an ache in our brittle bones 

and bruises on our spine 

they say healing takes time 

but the cut of their loss runs deep 

each stitch done 

with a blade cut open 

there is no rest

no chance for recovery

for one by one we fall

one by one we are claimed

another one of us was missed today 

they may not remember her 

but we’ll say her name 

we’ll remember who took her 

the father

the stranger 

the friend

the lover 

we’ll tell her story 

her truth before 

the teacher

the daughter

the friend 

the stranger

she was a person

not a lesson to be learnt

she could have been more

she deserved to be

another one of us died today

she died today

and we feel closer to death for it.