How to Cure a Ghost by Fariha Róisín is a poetry collection ravaged by generational trauma, rape, internalized racism (which seems too weak of a concept for the internal ravages of white supremacy), and colonialism. Róisín is torn apart by these feelings and left with the feelings of being unlovable. There is an in-betweenness of these poems. Love for a mother who mostly taught hate. Brown skin in a black-and-white world. Living between countries and cultures in search of home.
Through these poems, she exposes the pulsating wounds to unapologetically bleed on the page, yet exposing these wounds to oxygen in order to heal. These poems are sharp, a weapon against colonialism and white supremacy. After reading these poems, I didn't quite feel a resolution or hope, but I felt like being stitched together carefully, yet clumsily. I felt a continuance, a will to keep going, a permission to accept love from herself instead of searching for it externally.
These poems are for the sad girlies, the cry-when-they're-mad girlies, the looking-for-love-but-it-right-there-all-along girlies.
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