What is it about grief that keep morphing into synonyms for every beautiful? -Sodiq Oyekanmi.

 

Tonight, the abnormal weave of the wind,

Smites my mind into a down-curving hook,

Where the reminiscence of my mother is caught.

What does it glint when a woman, 

perforates the round cardinal of her eyes into a debacle,

For tears that stood stagnant?

 

My mother taught me the physics of imprisoning joy in bones,

Like jailing a smile deep in the Kirikiri of the mouth.

Tell me! How can joy be bailed in a home?

Where the belly of a man empties cartons of alcohol everyday,

To beef up his hands, capitalizing bruises on the skin of his woman?

 

I wonder how cold it is for that black girl too, 

Unpainting smiles off the Jericho of a red face, 

Reappearing and disappearing in the heavy smoke of the night, 

Making a home on the subway!

 

And once I change the pose of my eyes,

For the skyway; for the moon, 

To see something full and beautiful, 

I find the moon half in scabs of grief.

Then I know, that the relationship between grief-

Licking away joy from beautiful things;

Is a galvanized iron… Rustless!

 

Fatihah Quadri Eniola is a Nigerian poet, creative writer, and a literary critic who hold a strong feeling of adoration for art. She lives with her happy parent in Ibadan, Oyo state in Nigeria.

Fatihah is a member of HCAF (Hilltop creative arts foundation), Nibstears poetry cave, B.G.T( Black girl’s tales) and a pressman. Her works have appeared or forthcoming in Beatnik Cowboy, World Voices magazine, Notion press, De Curated and Syncronized Chaos.

Fatihah loves cinematography, you can find her on IG “Fatihah Quadri”