Blind and Helpless Figures
This morning, Just like my blind neighbor, Musa and his son Yussuf A blind me placed my hand on the shoulder of my muse And away wandered, walking within a world of words Ai salam ley ku Put a coin here and Allah will smile…
A Girl’s Life Is An Allotrope Of Death
Last night I drank an ol’ man’s sigh- mouthful after mouthful; & sat still until the last drop, staggered down my throat, into my bowels to quench the flames burning therein. Early this morning, I awoke to Dawn- perching on the rays of the sun,…
Tell Me How To Woo Adaobi
How to woo Adaobi
Let Us Be One Poem
I know my soul is a complex of ballads &odes,
One of you
Do not ask me again Why I hop from tree to tree like a monkey It is because I am in a frantic search For healing herbs for my bedridden country And just as the thunder’s applause welcomes the rain And the torch of lightening…
A Letter to Dawn
As soon as mama weaned me
Papa stood by the corners of my mouth
With a gourd, full of wisdom
And told me; “Drink, my child, drink!
For life is a journey through a desert
Where there are no oases.”
Come Watch Me, Dance Naked
Jaachi, I am the tree which died in the seedlings you refused to tend. I am a memory you cannot drown in a keg of palm-wine, for like a feather, I will float upon the rivers of your thoughts till you recall and regret the night when you abandoned a broken flute at the village square, for I am that flute and wholeness found me in the hands of a drummer boy who lost his drumsticks.
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