Brief Meditations

October 17, 2022

Migraines

i begin this poem with a cough. a mole

will find pathways in the spaces of my head 

and survive. i’ll dry my skin with fire and name

it “a new style of smiling”. in this type of poem, 

a bird is broken in the wing and bruised. 

history says there are worms in the bird’s cage that do not 

bring it joy.

 

i narrate my autobiography with dark songs. 

like the bird with the broken wing, i am a pendant on the neck 

of a madman, dangling towards perdition, towards 

a salvation that does not satiate. 

this is how i hold my tongue for the miracle of

writhing. my head aches each time a boy calls

me ‘leper’. i give my body a new name and

a new grave. i teach myself how to smile, 

although crying is what we worship, a ritual for the gods, here.

 

i am a banana peel. wastewater. i am not always the

fulfillment of my mother’s sweet wishes. this poem is where

confession pours like rain. 

i am a cloth dangled on a shark’s teeth. i am the cold

of a gentle night. mind me not. this is what our body 

becomes when we are served the meal of a wizard. 

i am a castaway in my fatherland. a regurgitation, a

slippery river. this is a poem where God will pour himself 

from heaven and tell me to write more poems, boy. you do not

know which will heal you.

Once Upon A Time. 

Every name has a scar in my country. 

Little things fall, in drops, and

They grow into forests of blood. I bless my

Mouth with a poem and pull the beard on my chin. 

There are tiny things in my chest, 

I pick at them like wounds

That fester and enflame.

My mother cries while giving birth to a new child, her

Fifteenth labour. She is my father’s second daily bread. 

My father, with the stench of

Liquor all over him is always home.

My mother used to cry behind closed doors with him, and we, 

The children, would carry thick phlegm on our noses, sucking 

Our thumbs seventy-two times till they came out. 

My family is a recycling bin. I want to dispose the

Litters in it and pour them into the mouth 

Of my country. My country, a mother of a useless son – my

Family, and there’s always a harvest for every sowing. 

Or what use is a mother breaking promises to her son? 

Just yesterday, a boy’s brain welcomed a bullet with an

Open arm because he’s decent. Because he holds a laptop, 

Something he uses for graphic design! 

I am tired of a mother that does not know how to sprinkle joy 

On her son’s chest, a mother who doesn’t have time

To quench her son’s thirst.

I am tired of a mother 

That does not know how to say, Smile, son. You’re the beauty 

Of the star, you’re the light of the moon. 

 

A Love Letter 

Number 27, Hibiscus Street, 

A Garden of Flower Road, 

  1. O. Box 1718,

Star City, 

Eden. 

8th February 2035.

To you, T

Love is like a seed buried into the earth’s soft soil. Like my heart, it sprouts and becomes more beautiful.T, I want to celebrate this day with your cake. You fed me a cake, and I ate it with cold juice. I want to mark my attendance at the opening of your heart with a kiss. I want to warm my body within the star of your teeth. I want to sway into the rhythms of your hips. 

T, I’ve fallen into that hole you dug. That hole you mentioned in your conversation with your mum, that a man who falls into it falls under your palm. T, I’m in this ocean where you’ve swum with the goddess. I await your embrace, I await your starlight, your is fragrance so strong. 

I want to say I love you, but I’m scared. I’m scared because love nowadays is a thing of the lips. It’s a myth of the Tortoise and the hot pottage. I want to travel into your smiles, your tiny teeth, the whiteness of cowry. I want to dance into your cold arm, so that this summer would not break me down like dry leaves. 

Allow us to hold hands by the riverside, our laughter like light sparkling from above. The way I would run after you, and you would say, “Stop now!”, and I wouldn’t stop and when I would catch you, I would recite poetry into your ears and make you blush. 

T, do not say this particular offering is a refuse dump; do not say my mouth stinks. I’m not the loquacious parrot of the Oba, I have come in peace. I have come with words so pure that dirt does not have the audacity to perch on them. Please, do not say no. I’d be glad if you said yes. 

I look forward to hearing from you. 

Yours in Love, 

                                              Your Poet Crush

 

Shitta Faruq Adémólá, Frontier XIV, is a 2021 SpringNG Writing Workshop alumni, a young Muslim Poet, budding French linguist, Phone Photographer and Fiction Writer From Nigeria. He is the author of a microchap “All I Know Is I Am Going To Be Beautiful One Day” (Ghost City Press, 2021), and Night Club With Dogs (INKspired) 2022.

Featured Image by Yoann Boyer on Unsplash

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