A Rigmarole of Loss

 

A Rigmarole of Loss

 

 

 when i hear demise / i know another person

            is torpid   clench the sunshine to my visage

                        & trace beatitude to my heart / like a terrorist

                                    on a geographical map

                                                                                                i meant to baptise my body against

                                                                                    grief / & then i feel / the nature of the blade

                                                                        in my body     to a boy that never knows

                                                            what loss means       it's hurter than sprinkle

                                                salt on an incision     when the doctor says maternal

death     it means / blissful moaning:

your mother obeys gravity law         her soul is untied like a fruit

plopped from a tree       i behold my grandmother /

            deflates on the floor like a pulverized rock      crestfallen

& her face feels ghastly drench

as though she is standing in a gasping spasm

they say    ìbànújé ni kí omo tojú òbí ròrun

but in my hometown 

             birth & death are closely akin        & palpable     

                        the only difference is what  you felt     & when i hear death  

my tongue is slothful to hold prayer      my happiness

 never  grows wings      & affliction revamps

our home to theatre  scintillating on my flesh

thrust a scalpel / rive bone / left cut

                        it uncovers.

 

Ismail Yusuf Olumoh

 

Ismail Yusuf Olumoh is a Nigerian creative writer and teacher, a poet, a spoken word artiste, a graphics designer, a content creator, and a video editor. His works are published and forthcoming in Nantygreens, Eboquills, Fevers of the mind, Poemify Publishers, Festival for poetry, De Curated, Synchronized Chaos, Williwash, World Planet Anthology, and others. He writes from Ilorin, Kwara State. When he is not writing, he enjoys reading or cooking. He tweets @icreatives0