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    Somehow, Somehow
    Somehow, Somehow
    Somehow, Somehow
    Ebook65 pages22 minutes

    Somehow, Somehow

    By Nyanda Foday

    ()

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    About this ebook

    During lockdown Nyanda was at university. She chose to stay in her student accommodation rather than going home to her family. She spent 79 days alone, with deteriorating mental health, trying to study for her degree.

    This visceral, astonishing collection from one of the country's most exciting emerging performance poets explores this unprecedented moment in global history - from a personal and fascinating point of view.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAndersen Digital
    Release dateSep 5, 2024
    ISBN9781787612877
    Somehow, Somehow
    Author

    Nyanda Foday

    Nyanda Foday was Birmingham's Young Poet Laureate 2016-2018, and is inspired by the impact that words can have to create, unite, explain and enjoy. She strives to connect with others where she can by sharing and listening to others’ work. Her parents moved from Sierra Leone to London before having Nyanda.

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      Book preview

      Somehow, Somehow - Nyanda Foday

      Conversation Topic

      I am in a park with strangers

      When it becomes something to talk about.

      We laugh,

      Stand a little apart.

      The Prime Minister is suggesting herd immunity.

      We make our plans for our project-

      We don’t know yet-

      We say:

      It should be fine,

      So long as we remember to wash our hands

      Contamination OCD

      I am in a Nando’s with my parents

      When I realise that I cannot do this the way they can.

      When I track my father back from the sink

      And see everything he’s touched

      And want to rush back and wash again and again.

      I don’t have contamination OCD.

      Yet.

      My flavour is hoarding and intrusive thoughts

      But I can feel the way my brain shifts,

      Alert.

      It says: Here is a new thing to be afraid of

      It s almost not even about the germs

      It says: If you’re going to do it, do it right.

      That’s when I decide to stop going outside,

      That’s when I decide that it is better to have nothing,

      Than play around with ‘careful’.

      I spent most of the pandemic more afraid of passing it

      Than catching it-

      I said: If I see nobody,

      If I am locked away for all but two hours a week,

      Please, please don’t let me hurt anybody.

      I gave it up

      I gave it all up

      I would do it again.

      Alone (Part 1)

      When my housemate tells me he’s thinking about going home,

      I tell him that I support whatever decision he needs to make.

      And when he tells me he’s going home, I hug him.

      And my family is in Birmingham

      And I am in Manchester, 75 miles away.

      And I decide to stay.

      The flat becomes my domain

      I stretch

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