James Kilgore
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What next?
Independence
Inside out
Freedom fighters advance
AK’s askew
Who will they attack?
Farm workers flee
Grab a hoe
Perhaps a cob of maize
Refugees
From a new Chimurenga
The house of stones
Crumbling
From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe
What next?
A Prison
Is a sea
Churning secrets
Waves of hate
The calm of routine
Slaps against the rocks.
This sea holds monsters
The unpredictable
A rip tide
Can carry you away forever.
There are big fish here
And small
Blue and green
The best swimmers
Can’t always get away.
A prison has storms
And quiet moments
When the surf
Silently crushes each grain of sand.
(Susanville, California, 2007)
Independence
Inside out
Freedom fighters advance
AK’s askew
Who will they attack?
Farm workers flee
Grab a hoe
Perhaps a cob of maize
Refugees
From a new Chimurenga
The house of stones
Crumbling
From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe
What next?
A Prison
Is a sea
Churning secrets
Waves of hate
The calm of routine
Slaps against the rocks.
This sea holds monsters
The unpredictable
A rip tide
Can carry you away forever.
There are big fish here
And small
Blue and green
The best swimmers
Can’t always get away.
A prison has storms
And quiet moments
When the surf
Silently crushes each grain of sand.
(Susanville, California, 2007)
James Kilgore grew up in California. He graduated from the
University of California at Santa Barbara in 1969. Living in
the politically volatile San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s
he became involved with the Symbionese Liberation Army,
resulting in an indictment for possession of explosives. He
fled the charges, remaining a fugitive for 27 years.
He spent 20 years in Southern Africa living in Zimbabwe and
South Africa under the pseudonym Charles “John” Pape.
During that time he worked as an educator and researcher,
earned a Ph.D, and authored a number of educational and
academic materials. He also married Teresa Barnes. He was
arrested in Cape Town, South Africa in 2002 and served six
and half years in prison, gaining his release in May, 2009.
He currently resides in Illinois, U.S.A. with his wife and two
children. He is the author of a novel, We Are All
Zimbabweans Now, published in 2009 and short-listed by the
2010 Berlin Film Festival for high film potential.
University of California at Santa Barbara in 1969. Living in
the politically volatile San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s
he became involved with the Symbionese Liberation Army,
resulting in an indictment for possession of explosives. He
fled the charges, remaining a fugitive for 27 years.
He spent 20 years in Southern Africa living in Zimbabwe and
South Africa under the pseudonym Charles “John” Pape.
During that time he worked as an educator and researcher,
earned a Ph.D, and authored a number of educational and
academic materials. He also married Teresa Barnes. He was
arrested in Cape Town, South Africa in 2002 and served six
and half years in prison, gaining his release in May, 2009.
He currently resides in Illinois, U.S.A. with his wife and two
children. He is the author of a novel, We Are All
Zimbabweans Now, published in 2009 and short-listed by the
2010 Berlin Film Festival for high film potential.