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Buying Aubergines from Tesco Extra, Rotherham, the Day After a Race Riot at the Holiday Inn in Manvers
by Matthew Paul
Pro-immigration supporters outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, August 4, 2024

Aubergine the internet tells me 
means ‘fruit of the eggplant’
from the French
from the Catalan alberginera
from the Arabic al-badinjan
from the Persian badin-gan
from the Sanskrit vatigagama.

I think of this while three aubergines 
cosy up to one another 
in the metal basket I’m carrying 
in a daze along the ‘World Foods’ aisle.

I think about this too while everyone 
in the shop carries on as though
attempted lynchings of asylum-seekers
up the road didn’t actually happen.

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