SAUDATE: FOR GRANDMA
ripples of your serene voice
reverberate like a serenade
lofty laughter & hearty stories
make me want to sit with you
one more time to capture moments
but your room stopped scenting of you
your room now scents of Caro white
far from your scent of shea-butter
a flashback of you sitting on your bed
flashes like flickers of light in a camera
made me search for traces of you
in corners but not a shadow hovers still
so I dug my heart to open the can
of stories you sprouted in this room
of flowers, you watered in this room
of birds, you gave wings in this room
of a room that reminds me of old age
of histories of firewoods & moonlit nights
of a mother who sent you to school
of a father who says, 'kitchen, a girl's school'
of the story your tongue loved the most
of your treks to and from Methodist School
of how it was the only school at the time,
of repetitions of your interesting tales
that bonded us together every now & then
in these tales, you taught me life—
serves us both herbs and juices
our taste bud chooses which to linger on.
Lagos, 2020
BUT I DO NOT HAVE A DESTINATION
i walk from a past i want to bury in oblivion
one that was drenched in fear & daily doubts
today, i rise with the sun to dry my grief before
gloom silently comes to engulf me
today i dust my feet and walk away & sometimes
i want to run, fly or maybe disappear
times i envy a bird soaring high in the air
times i pack my splinters my shards into a bag
folded to journey into a future festooned in faith
but i do not know where or when to stop and
i do not know where or when i will cross the bridge
the border where the thorns will wave goodbye
and my fears will never have to haunt me again
i do not know where I'd see the sea that'd drown
away these scars floating on my skin like
paper boats on a body of seawater
today, i begin this journey in search of the self
but i do not have a destination
Lagos, 2020
Rahma O. Jimoh is a writer and nature photographer. She loves to write on humanity, identity and politics. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Feral, Versification, Serotonin, The Hellebore and other literary journals. Rahma is a joint winner of the PIN 10-day poetry challenge, 2019 and second runner up in the Poesy writers contest 2019, she was recently shortlisted as top ten in the Hysteria Writing Contest, 2020, and she is a 2020 Pushcart Prize Nominee. She is the Poetry Editor for The Quills and a Contributor at Best Of Africa.
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