Amanda Holiday – African Icarus | Poetry in Translation
African Icarus
He fell from the sky
– no one knew who he was
an African Icarus
his head smashed onto the crazy paving
in a Clapham garden
but he was already dead
frostbitten in the wheelwell
of the 787 out of Jomo Kenyatta
international, 2 hours in, the water bottle
untouched along with the bread
His friend knew a friend who knew a man
who had flown for free this way under a turbo jet
to Paris afterdark, cut a hole in the airfield fence
no one saw, ran to the undercar, scaled the iron
bird leg, tucked himself in a corner with just a bag,
damp towel for fumes, cork for his ears,
slugged triple whiskey straight, bit his lip hard,
covered his nose with the cloth
as the thundering tyres pounded the runway
then up and up and up in prayer
Father into your hands I lend my spirit
he willed himself into a trance, they say
He’s living large now a Paris, sends money
back western union every month end
His mother is building a house in Nairobi
Thus he dreamed.
He was the skinny kid
with ashy knot knees who
outran the old trains on the platform
at Imara Diama station on Mombasa Road
then one time he jumped the Premier’s
car in the street and danced on top
two fingers popping off at all the cheers
until security jumped out and grabbed
him pummelling him to the ground
He nearly died then
His mother was watching the BBC news
idly, ironing for some white lady when they
mentioned Kenya Airways and she
saw a photo of some Indian man some student
in London who had been laid out in his garden
sunbathing. When the body hit from the sky
Right then something in her heart snagged
she grabbed a dress to her nose and smelled
kerosene and then she screamed and screamed
because she knew that damn fool
fell from the plane was her son
Sierra Leone born artist and poet Amanda Holiday moved to the UK aged five. She has exhibited artworks at INIVA and Tate Britain and has shows forthcoming with Vivienne Roberts. Founder of Black Sunflowers Poetry Press, Holiday is currently completing a PhD in Poetry, Race and Art at Brighton University.
"African Icarus" by Amanda Holiday is featured in Japa Fire: An Anthology of Poems on African and African Diasporic Migration (CivicLeicester, 2024) and has been translated into: French German Click on the links above to see the translations.
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