Born a Crime

and settlements like it were empty
places on the map where deported
black people had been relocated.
That’s what the government did.
They would find some patch of arid,
dusty, useless land, and dig row
after row of holes in the ground—a
thousand latrines to serve four
thousand families. Then they’d
forcibly remove people from
illegally occupying some white area
and drop them off in the middle of
nowhere with some pallets of
plywood and corrugated iron. “Here.
This is your new home. Build some
houses. Good luck.” We’d watch it
on the news. It was like some