Portrait of my brother as my father
my brother salaams as he saunters into the house
and our hearts skip some beats
it’s the aura, the voice, the face
the gait as he tries to fill Baba’s shoes
kamar Baba wallahi
just like Baba, wallahi
my stepmom drew a deep sigh of grief
turns to me and says
Kama da wane bata wane
similarity is not the same as identity
there is an emptiness it can’t fill
this is how I describe the family tragedy
a fire outbreak in the sea
it can only be extinguished by God
———
Portrait of a House of Mourning
today, a section of the ceiling in our home
cracks and falls
the painting in our room starts
coming off in pieces
grandma says this is what happens
when the owner of a house dies
things begin to fall apart
the centre can no longer hold
for a father is The Wall
and this wall has fallen and
the shed has collapsed
this is how a house mourns its owner
this is how grief breaks a house
but how do children mourn their father
and how does grief break children?
this is a poem for another day
———
Poems by Mujahid Ameen Lilo
Image: Pixabay modified