A LETTER TO MAMA
tell mama,
i am a body of water
drowning with broken dreams
the face
of an orphan
seashell
whose sun walk into darkness
Photograph
a frozen man smiles each time i enter mother’s bedroom
who he was and how he got there
i don’t know.
i was told, he left for Burma
and for long there wasn’t a hot or cold news about him
his broad jaw strikes me a lot
evincing the man, I was
as a child I thought mama loves photographs
but the frozen man seems to be the only hill she looks to
whenever lovers in the city garden coo
but why would she keep her heart close for a man
whose atlas is no where
ABIKU
This silence howls your name
the name you left to die in my skin
my ribcage now pines
rose flowers
you left with my orb
leaving shreds of
bittersweet pain
pains that talon
ripping through my sky like soot
here I am in Yemoja’s altar
a sorcerer
an enchanter
an owl that flies to be drench by rain
rain that makes night sleepless
that chases old demons for new
ones at dawn
your love for me is witchcraft
you, goddess of sex
you are Abiku:
winds that brings misfortune in
sunshine.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ojo Taiye is a young Nigerian who uses poetry as a handy tool to hide
his frustration with the society.