In my country
If you can’t find a pillow,
Take a stone or a wood instead.
For rest is for only the dead.
I won’t tell of how miseries billow
In my country.
After Danusha Laméris’ insha’Allah.
Before Subhi, mama will say
Subhanallah
Wal-hamdulillah, Laa-ilaha illa-llah…
At Zuhr, when the ten years old me
caper around,
She clutches her rosary and says her
waziifa¹ noon-round.
With her rosary snaking around her wrist,
She prepares Iftaar as Asr shows the day’s twist.
“My hope will not set with the sun.” she feels sore
at Maghreb & picks the broken beads
from the floor.
I look as she channels a thread
through the beads
Before Isha. She smiles and says:
“Allah, forgive my misdeeds.”
“Insha’Allah this year we will have enough rain.”
She says & the rosary–under her fingers–is fain.
“Insha’Allah your future will shine & be bright…”
She counts her wishes with the rosary ere sleeping at night.
How tenderly she holds her hopes!
How tenderly her rosary lopes!
__
¹ waziifa: daily supplication.
Like a palm-wine drinkard
You are inebriated by desires.
“Ayé lá o se ká tóó sòrun¹”
Breezily sways you into a shack…
Shack of ecstasy, tears and red
smiles. You carry yourself in the
gourd of others’ tears. Ecstasy feeds
you crunchy smiles; you belch &
go wild; you sit your palanquin on
the bald head of the moon.
Behold! Your night is but a victim–
to be slain at the threshold of
another morning. Behind the shack is
a raging river of your shed & unshed
tears. The fire is weak beside its
(river’s) hotness, & the ice; its frostiness.
All the boats at its bank are not for sinful souls.
No “Laa ilaha illal-lah” to sail you
through, nor “holy Mary” out of the
blue. & then you’ll find your forgotten
soul loafing around the backyard of
vain. Your nude self you’ll find; the
naked truth you’ll find. “Ayé lá o se
ká tóó sòrun” shall there be defined.
___
¹ Ayé lá o se ká tóó sòrun: we will enjoy every bits of this world (lavishly) before we go to the hereafter.
Arikewusola Abdul Awal writes from Oyo state. His poems have appeared–and are forthcoming–on ila magazine, willi wash, Teen Lit journals, Literary Yard, The Yellow House, Thirty Shades of Roses Anthology, Broken chunks of hearts, World Voice Magazine and elsewhere. When he is not writing, he is found reading or watching movies.
