Published May 1st, 2023
by Chukwuma-Eke Pacella
(Kubwa, Abuja, Nigeria)
Call me the descendant of my mother's darkness
I would chew up the inconveniences it has carved on my image
and I would answer;
To the listening of the birds resting their soles
on the bald heads of scrapers;
To the listening of the beings of sorcery, black and white.
When God gets a hold of my voice in motion
He too, would marvel at His own forgetfulness;
Of the difference between bitterness and loyalty,
pride and pain.
Stranger, call me by the tunes of alphabets my ancestors
named after their scars a - r - u - n - n - e
And I would escort these feet housing
the legs of a thousand and one stranded corpses – to you.
This time, even when this night has the cricket's melody
sewn onto the air
Call me a broken people
And watch as my reply teleports to your land.
Arunne – Mother's Body
Biography
Chukwuma-Eke Pacella is a Nigerian writer.
She is the first runner up for the Nigeria Prize for Teen Authors Award (Poetry Category) 2022.
Several works are published or forthcoming in literary journals like the Eunoia Magazine, Brittle Paper, Strange Horizons, and others.
This poem is included in Poetry World #6, published in the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
Previously published in Africa Poetry Magazine:
Dry Season
by Nkoyo O. Nsa
Africa Poetry Magazine is part of the Wax Poetry and Art Network.
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- Visit the Wax Poetry and Art Library.
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