HOME

{i}

I left the bush with no trees / scattered the few it had left me out to sea
I did not burn my branches / I hid them from the fire / welcomed rain / my body afloat
/ torch alight / I made my way to the hut / to see what burns in this neck of the woods
what we knock down / what we sacrifice / a map home

{ii}

don’t shave all of my hair /
leave the back & sides

I’m going back
calendar & bones
               / strip

my figurine /

this battle the lawn knows
has no place love shows
returning home

———————–

THE PLEDGE

Of old men
stale blood
in my lungs /

I
breathe dreams
in my dry mouth /
a year of no clams
just lies / I breathe

catch the fly in my throat
tell my children
kill the pledge

the heart stops
when life beats

lies & dreams
tell the story of

nightmares & babies wail
without mothers & breastmilk

& a mouth of love is what
we have to leave our children

———————–

HAIR

My mother breathes into hair
patterns I know
we’ve been here before
the journey is long

she calls water to read our palms
from towns we inhale fog
kind to our soil& fingers
fortunate— of dew

excitement wells
fifty towns & climbing
our journey is long/
fog my mother turns into hair

———————–
Poetry © Adura Ojo
Image by Numbercfoto on Pixabay