Maybe it was symbolic that I had\u00a0
Mourned you before you morphed\u00a0
Out of your tender flesh. I slept in\u00a0
Black clothes. You aborted my sleep
With cries. I roamed around the room
With clenched fist against pain but\u00a0
‘Twould be madness to punch the\u00a0
Wind. Your mother had this darkness
In her eyes. Her shoulder was heavy.
Motherhood stretched her breasts\u00a0
And Grandma’s back bore your body.
I knew the demons were present but
I didn’t know they came with the\u00a0
Grim reaper. I’d have prayed in\u00a0
tongues through the rugged night\u00a0
And teased God to pretend that you
Were another Hezekiah and Grandma’s
Back was the wall you faced with\u00a0
tears of supplication for another full
Day to breathe and laugh and eat\u00a0
Biscuits and tell Mommy again “My
Mummy, I woke up”\u00a0
I hope you remember that I poured
Prayers into your forehead through\u00a0
My palms, that night, before returning
To bed. That’s our last contact before
News got to me that you were on\u00a0
Your way up, all ready. To and fro the\u00a0
Medicine house, we missed the\u00a0
Emergency flight of troubled mothers
And back home, ’twas the debris of\u00a0
Your being on grandpa’s bed. I once
Cursed death for taking a random\u00a0
Kid at Grandpa’s accident. Today,\u00a0
Again, I curse death for breaking this
Home like a robber and choosing\u00a0
Your body as a window to burgle\u00a0
Out joy. Sorrow is the simple song
when\u00a0 a soul rolls out and the body\u00a0
Becomes a dead log. I believed that
Dead bodies could be Adam-ed again
Sustained with explanation that Gene
Mutation and life expectancy would\u00a0
Only mess you up for eternal beauty.
Hear, my baby, your uncle is lame
And he can’t defy this art of disappearance.\u00a0
Your picture is the background of the
Keyboard I wrote this poem with.\u00a0
And like stale morcha, I can still\u00a0
Smell the whif of your abandoned skin,
Brush hair with bonds and white\u00a0
Round neck you vomitted on \u2014 sparing
The blue love design on the chest.
We’re still preaching to your mom
And fumbling for accurate words\u00a0
To lessen the pain from the pinch\u00a0
Of your death, I mean your departure,
I mean your holiday, I mean your\u00a0
Sweet stay in God’s safest palms
Where mortality cannot reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Psalmuel Benjamin is a writer and poet from Nigeria. He’s got poems and other writings published and forthcoming on digital magazines and prints. Facebook: psalmuel Benjamin oluwasheun, Insta: spokespsalmuel\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maybe it was symbolic that I had\u00a0Mourned you before you morphed\u00a0Out of your tender flesh. I slept in\u00a0Black clothes. You aborted my sleepWith cries. I roamed around the roomWith clenched fist against pain but\u00a0‘Twould be madness to punch the\u00a0Wind. Your mother had this darknessIn her eyes. Her shoulder was heavy.Motherhood stretched her breasts\u00a0And Grandma’s back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-issue-1","category-poetry","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akpatamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}