Poetry

Brian Wolfe photo

By

Ogunkoya Samuel

The fabulous life of worshippers, infidels and living things

and after we washed our faces with morning prayers

-unfinished thoughts falling from our dreams-

mother reminded us that the scriptures are closed books,

the eldest, the one who death replaced papa with revolted last night

he said holy books are ongoing conversations,

they should evolve with mankind.

mother said those are vain words from godless men and then grazed his face.

our sisters wore silence

like long robes over their bodies,

they too have been taught

-to be quiet is to be a wise girl

a woman’s strength is in sealed lips

a woman’s mouth should hold more silence than words-

two nights ago,

our eldest called this barbaric,

mother struck him twice.

we ran into the mouth of the city,

picking relics off its teeth.

each ounce is worth half a meal

Ogunkoya Samuel

Ogunkoya Samuel is a Nigerian physiotherapist. His poems have been published and are forthcoming in Kalahari Review, AfricanWriter, Barking sycamores,  Best New African Poets anthology 2017. He writes from ile-ife.