Written piece
Asleep With One Eye Open
Amondi Awuor
Kenya
About this piece
A child carries red soil from her grandmother's grave to preserve her memory and rebuild homes from ancestral soils in the face of forced evictions.
Boom!
My eyes fly open at the thunderclap outside my window. The bag of soil sits beside my bed — too silent.
“That is not enough.”
My mother’s words whisper back to me. More red earth from my grandmother’s grave find its way into the bag.
“But why her grave?”
“So that we carry her with us everywhere we go.”
I get back under the covers. The bag held securely against my chest — carrying a woman I have never met.
At dawn, strangers arrive with measuring tapes.
Bulldozers follow.