inyanga
at three
silence grows like wildfire
in places
words should have been
mother says that i am careful
with whom i give
my words to
that i am born with
inyanga on my lips
at five
silence is an open wound
on my skin that refuses to heal
i tell mother
that the boys in school
pan silence into my body
and once they said that
i was possessed by mammy water
and that i love to do inyanga with my hip
mother says that i should worry not
that swaying hip
i would outgrow
at ten
boys in my school say
that i am a metaphor for weak
and that i love to do inyanga
like a girl
i swallow words with silence
at seventeen
i tell mother that inyanga
lives in my hip and that
is why my hip swings like pendulum
mother says that i should worry not
that swaying hip
i would outgrow
inyanga is a boy with swaying
hip
inyanga is igbo for shakara
inyanga is growing and eating
silence for being soft and beautiful
inyanga is me at twenty-two
eating silence with prayers
hoping that being beautiful
and soft
i’d outgrow
———
Inyanga: showing off
Mammy water: water spirit
Shakara: pride, showing off
———————-
Poem © Ugochukwu Damian Okpara
Image: Pixabay.com remixed