ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Trust Tonji is the winner of the 2018 edition of the MLK slam competition, organized by the US embassy in Republic of Benin. He writes from Porto Novo. His poems have appeared in Voicemail Poems, Ethel Zine, The Friday Influence, Eunoia Review, Prachya Review, Synchronized Chaos, Kalahari Review, African Writer, Praxis Magazine, The Electronic Pamphlet and elsewhere.
The deaths that killed your mother broke your wings
1.
there is a sentence stuck
between your teeth
like white full stops
spread across a sickly tongue
2.
come dusk, you will understand
the privilege of light in its glamorous
bow-
out
3.
somehow she has become your mantra
with lyrics rising and falling
on your smile and frown
:
like life
mama, like life,
mama you break me
you make me
you…
4.
you are living your life without first
understanding how to live without it
5.
no one told you you won't find sleep
if you keep asking yourself
questions that belong to your shadow
6.
I am disappointed that you're disappointed
.
now that you have burnt your tears
you are like everyone
transplanting the graves of their own
7.
does your tongue hug the water
because it's warm, and salty?
8.
another bone is germinating
inside your heart
but it is not the fruit of your labor
9.
you believe in things
your mother did not believe in
'no girl makes a good wife
other than she who can cook', she says
9.
you say, 'no, mother. girls who cook
cook because their mothers tell them
that's what good girls do so they spend
their days in the currency of hypocrisy'
9.
your mother's lips fall apart
10.
when you told her of your depressed friend
who wants Jesus to unsave him
11.
let's get this straight
you, too, do not want to close
your eyes again in the name of fear
12.
in the name of the sins written in the middle
of the hands you clasped
in prayers shorter than the length of your shortcomings
;
to hell with hell
13.
: Amen
It’s been more than four years now that she died, but the death of my mother always invites me to examine the concept of death and love and the strings that hold kinship tight. This woman, love of my life, whose memories I constantly catch myself falling into, has been a huge influence on my recent writing. The things we agreed and disagreed upon, the little smiles and the tickles of emotions sometimes serve to pacify my soul, no matter how it is I’m feeling.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
