the emigree

• there once was a country... (4)

  1. cadence of a fairytale
  2. ellipsis - deliberate uncertainity - censorship of info?
  3. "a country " universalises emigration
  4. sudden, abrupt start mirrors exile
• but my city comes to me in its own white plane (3)

  1. inverts power - dominance of imagination over reality
  2. "white plane" ambiguous - spiritual visualisation - nostalgia
  3. "own" gives city agency - personification - paradoxical
• it may be at war, it may be sick with tyrants (3)

  1. "may" modal verb - cognitive dissonance
  2. "it may be" repetition - hypnotic rhythm of denial
  3. "sick with tyrants" personification - tyranny is a virus - postcolonial decay contaminates identity