‘Duel Citizenship'
By Denise Chaila
Where are you from, originally?
Where are you from? Originally?
See, our souls are composed of borders
And all of lines that we have crossed that tangle
Are wires when we speak
There are some people who have borrowed accents
From almost every single continent
Trying to fill in the blanks
Where our tongues are starting to trip
Over the languages that we were born into
There are some people who will spend their whole lives
Looking for a definition of home
That doesn't come with strings attached
https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=1L71lG
TLKgk [6.44 mins]
Live Performance of
‘Dual Citzenship’
I have spent my whole life learning that I must make myself
Take my belonging, it will not just be handed to you
So now, now I could tell you about king and about countries
About wars and democracies
About independence and revolutionaries
About famine and bounty
About green and white and golden eagles
Against streaks of orange and black
I could tell you about Amhrán na bhFiann
And Lumbanyeni Zambia
I could show you the spirit of Lucan, Limerick, and Lusaka
I could translate all of my Lenje stories
So that we could sing them as Gaeilge
I could be bacon and cabbage in Mufulira
Or [?] in Swords, cooking nshima
That's [?] for my people in the diaspora
But, you see, I'm both the story: akashimi
And the one telling it: seanachaí
There is so much céilí in my kopala
And I am tired of proving that I am as much Denise
As I am Mwaka
So cén scéal?
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