I do not care if I transform into a metaphor
or not, for I’m already a walking elegy waiting
to be sung. & death keeps kissing my feet softly
like a peg by a missed spouse. tomorrow, if you see
me whispering, I’m not ascending my fears into
broken prayers, neither am I recreating this body
into flames of smoke: but I’m learning the Constitution
of grief—catching feathers fraying with the wind.
there are not days breaking into dawn, only heads
fixing into loop holes; the Imaam says when Grace
speaks for you, nobody would stop your shine &
I’m here creating images of God’s face with my fingers:
thumb: translating a boy into an album of dead songs.
index: dead songs, where my tears confluence with
my mother’s
middle finger: my mother, an emerging gravestone—
a breaking branch of an Oak tree
ring finger: branch of an Oak tree, a flowing stream
overflowing the banks of the palm of the earth
pinkie: the earth, I, an entity heaved on its dread.
Adamu Yahuza Abdullahi, TPC V, is a budding poet who sees poetry as a drug for healing. He studies botany at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. He hails from Kwara State, Nigeria. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in journals/magazines, some of which are (but not limited to): Angel Rust, Kalahari Review, Rogue Agent, ARKORE Writes, Konya Shamsrumi, Arts Lounge Magazine, The Pine Cone Review and Borgu Book Club. His poem ‘Catalogue of memories’ has been nominated by OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review for the 2023 Best of the Net by Sundress Publications. He is the recipient of the NAKS (a student union body in Kwara State) 2021 award for ‘Poet of the Year’. He is a lover of books and flavored tea. When not writing, he reads other poets and creatives.
Eunoia Review 