The journey started from nowhere 

as journeys sometimes do.

I am in Cabin 6604 on a train 

speeding to Montreal, reading Fanon 

preach of a violent decolonization,

and enjoying the melange 

of city and country that

spreads out farmhouses 

and silos in the middle 

of nowhere.

With wintry winds on its sail,

the metallic horse gallops

with gentle fury, surrounded by

snow-painted fields 

of frigid shrubs waiting

for the blooms of springs.

I overhear a medical student 

by my side tell a stranger 

of mother’s dishes that

call her home to visit.

I try not to eavesdrop,

but my Canadian politeness

soon genuflects before

a storyteller’s curiosities.

She struggles to contain

her Covid mask and the many joys 

home may bring her way. 

Something in her voice

reverberates like Moyosore’s litanies

reaching from Lagos,

as echoes of a mother 

deprived of her son.  

But when the driver announces 

tickets will be checked,

a side look from her 

tells another tale: 

the eternal surveillance 

Of the Black man.

But my decolonial desires 

are today born

of a gentleman’s agreement, 

to Fanon’s chagrin.

I want to write a poem 

for this returning moment,

and the angst of my immobility 

in a moving railcar

but a crew member

interrupts my thoughts

with a shout of her wares.

Her bazaar forbids

cash on the train,

only Visa cards

for those dreaming

of coffee and something to bite.

As visions of stolen lands

speed into memories of violence

in the face of another native,

capital it was that had the final say.

Or so it seemed. Until my Uber driver,

freshly banned from Twitter,

arrived to chant fuckeries to Fascists!