Shitta Faruq Adémólá
when i sleep half – opened,
miracles escaping my breath,
i dream of a journey naming
me out of my country.
a bird takes its wing
above my throat. i mean to quote
what geography says about home – that
a river is a thread of beads,
narrowly crawling like a snail into the boundaries of
broken cities. a city is
in my chest: when i break it, the whistles
i hear are the wails of a girl – a girl does
not cry like a crocodile. she dilutes the
water in her veins, searching for the particular
map of where her home sits. she takes a stone,
label every scars in the chest of the map,
& cleans the blood that settles in her brain.
she is waiting for the star to shoot,
her eyes waiting for a miracle.
she itches them with her legs, & when she
became tired of counting, her eyes forced her back to sleep.
In his late teens, Shitta Faruq Adémólá is a Nigerian Poet, Writer, Graphics Artiste, Bag Maker and a budding French Linguist with poems and stories appearing or forthcoming in Kalahari Review, The Trouvaille Journal, Libretto Magazine, Parousia (Christian) Magazine, The Best Of Africa, African Writer, ARTmosterrific, Eboquills, Nanty Greens, Mad Swirl, Ngiga Review, A Country Of Broken Boys; Boys Are Not Stones Antthology, and elsewhere. His poem “Grief, Here, is a Song” was chosen by Adedayo Adeyemi Agarau, Author of Origin of Song for The New International Voice Series (Ice Floe Press) late September, 2020. He was also chosen by Jalada Africa for the 2020 Nostalgia Anthology where his editor will be Richard Ali, a Lawyer and Poet. He also won first place prize in the Shuzia Pen Protest Contest 2020. When he is not writing, he is either looking for fair ladies to admire, playing Scrabbles or listening to Simi’s voice. Say hi on Twitter @shittafaruqade1.
Liminal Transit Review 