My Sister Asks Me About the Revolution

By Changu Chiimbwe

outside our window where bullets pop
louder than the bubbles she blows and nicks
with her brown finger.

She sits at my feet with her neck craned to see me
—how do I remind her to keep it still, straight
so that no sudden movement takes her to the pavement
where they all bled—
but she cannot. Her hair stands taller than she does,
coarse & thick & run through with a tale that stretches
for generations. I can recite it whenever she asks me to.

Her question is too heavy for me to ponder, to prod.
Instead, I begin to twist her towering strands until they fall.
When she sees me, she understands.
The mirror is enough in its truth-telling.

Changu Chiimbwe is a Zambian-born writer based in New York. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, nominated for an American Voices medal, and published in The Rising Phoenix Review and Blue Marble Review. She is currently studying English literature at Columbia University, and she tries her best to convince everyone that words are living spirits.