The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party Gambia. Alhaji, twenty-one and gay, had been planning his birthday for months. The guest list carefully locked away; there was that real threat of decapitation to consider. However, he could no longer find peace by avoiding life. how old is need, how knotted are the corridors of loneliness? Imam , there is no angel with an orange by my bed His friends gathered by the poolside, each with his past shut in him like the leaves of a book, eyeing the uninvited guest snapping photographs. freedom is a fire that runs like a staircase up then down— my lover's lips the color of soft-skin mangoes