Poetry: Introduction to Grief by Ariyo Ahmad

Photo by Oyemike Princewill on Unsplash

And I will add to your days fifteen years—2 Kings 20:6

The moon that kings the sky tonight, will eventually kings no more, the souls that homes this body will soon wither like a sorrowful leaf in autumn

What’s special about a body fresh like a wine but writhe of grief,  death is amidst us all but dances in our shadows like head-scarfs of my sister

I want to lift the plague of grief in my body
that prayer will not retrogress from it
whenever I inhale the spirit of holy Ghost,

Amen my mother’s body to triumph over this sickness that keep lusting over her body,  isn’t it prayer that has the potential power to prolong a life?

I have seen death before as a boy learning the introduction of grief visiting a weak body
But death of a woman is what I don’t pray for!

A woman’s body is an incubator of life,
how they sow sperm and bloom a baby after months,  in pain and pleasure awaiting miracle

A daughter is the fruit of a nation,
a woman is its nourishment  and
mother’s feet are a road that leads to paradise,

I wonder how my country become a hostage to a woman’s dream, how they walk on their body like dead bodies and chatters their dream.

How can a scar sit comfortably in a boy’s body & their voices strangled around them
Like a raindrops stool inside a blooming flower

I’m in this poem like a student and this stanzas are walls that houses my body, the lines are staircase I can step to another grief without a fall.

Ariyo Ahmad, Frontier XI, is a Nigerian poet from Ogun state, Nigeria. A Pushcart nominee, He has poems published on Lumiere Review, Kissing Dynamite, Shallow Tales Review, Sledgehammer, Icefloe press, Native Skin, and several others. Find him on Twitter: @ahmad_akanni