the emigree

• 1. poem presents power of memory and reclamation of identity
• 2. effects of tyranny

  • "there once was a country, I left it as a child"
  • "sick with tyrants"
  • "it may be a lie now banned by the state"
  • "docile as paper" - make country seem innocent
  • "the city of walls" "they circle me"
• 3. reclamation of identity

  • "that child's vocabulary [...] like a hollow doll" "every coloured molecule of it"
  • "I comb its hair and love its shining eyes" "white plane"
  • each stanza ends discussing sunlight - symbolic of truth and reclaimation