“There are people who ignore Zambia’s plight. And there are  people who try to take advantage of the situation.”
—Sharon Fabian, Drought in Zambia

 

Behold Lusaka! And me in situ
come to appraise the obvious: storage
in open air; production for waste:

hundreds of ninety-kilo bags of maize
bursting at the seams: Sun-scorched
on top, steaming wet from rains underneath,
kernels for fungi and rats. Who cares?

Decay validates the extra cash from loans
to buy less-sweeter maize from richer worlds.
Who sees, sees double, my import and theirs.
Don’t count on resolve to solve iniquity.

Goodbye to what I know won’t help …
The logic of rot inexorably rules
shady dream castles in concrete.