ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Labelling An Immigrant
by JENNY MITCHELL
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
I feel them heavier some days, the wide seams
of my clothes no longer swaying when I walk,
as if the thread takes on the weight of every curse
since I crawled from a boat, sopping wet, weighed
down by nights spent under stars as water crashed.
Curse words meant to block my path rear up to grab
me by the scruff, labelling An Immigrant. Men stop
to hack the words, aiming at my hem to see me stumble
when I walk. Ever since my country’s lost, I’m deep
in mourning clothes, family buried in the soil.
Saliva seeps through cloth even though I scrub —
hands raw — would throw the clothes away, but money
is too scarce. It is my fault for running from the bombs
that destroyed the fabric of my home, all I had
worn on my back, clothes failing to protect.
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