Switch
1
Life matters after all
2
but some lives are always expendable
1
health is a collective concern
3
but force trumps care
15
no market without the majority
but individuals are ever-invisible
22
the present is real
but just a hitch in the road to the future
25
the virus reminds of the power of life that is not
human
but domination remains determinant.
*
Ibn Sina
in a poem
taught of al-Arba’iniya: 40
(quarantina)
(translated by Italian merchants)
40 days in the 11th century
are not even 30 in the 21st.
Salimah Valiani is a poet, activist and researcher based in Igoli (Johannesburg). She has published four collections of poetry and Dear South Africa, a 2019 Praxis Magazine e-chapbook. Her next poetry collection, 29 leads to love, will be published by Inanna Publications in 2021.
