Poem

Gabeba Baderoon

Side by side

I Cannot Myself

To come to this country,
my body must assemble itself

into photographs and signatures.
Among them they will search for me.

I must leave behind all uncertainties.
I cannot myself be a question.

Gabeba Baderoon

(South Africa, 1969)

Gabeba Baderoon (Cape Town, 1969) is an internationally published poet. Her work has appeared in New Contrast, Carapace, Illuminations, Feminist Studies and Matter. Baderoon won the Daimler-Chrysler 2004 Poetry Prize, worth R30 000. Her debut collection is expected from Kwela Books, South Africa in 2005.

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Poems of Gabeba Baderoon

I Cannot Myself

To come to this country,
my body must assemble itself

into photographs and signatures.
Among them they will search for me.

I must leave behind all uncertainties.
I cannot myself be a question.