Poet of the Week: Aisha Kabiru Muhammed

Breaking Free There was a time When affection was pain And silence was peace A time where your tongue Whipped and drew blood   I once walked on The shards of your Broken acknowledgement My feet bled But you never tended to my wounds You painted shame and grief With my blood And left me […]

Breaking Free

There was a time

When affection was pain

And silence was peace

A time where your tongue

Whipped and drew blood

 

I once walked on

The shards of your

Broken acknowledgement

My feet bled

But you never tended to my wounds

You painted shame and grief

With my blood

And left me to die

 

I no longer walk

On the clouds of your lies

Time has frozen and I have become

A phoenix burning brighter

Than the fires you tried to burn me with

 

I swirl in the mist

Of my own freedom now

I walked through flames

With fire in my heart

And not on my body

 

The Balance

You are the sky

That harbours hurricanes in its chest

But sends downs gentle nourishment to the earth

The earth with hot lava within its core

Yet the soil above you is cool and lush with plants

A sea with waves strong enough

To wash away islands

Yet gentle enough to be floated on

You hide turmoil

Beneath the smooth softness

Of your being

And smile even though the weight of earth sits comfortably

On the ceramic surface of your heart

It does not crack

You patch it up

And move on the weight

No longer has power over you

You bear it and without

You the world cannot exist

 

Fragile

We are warriors

Forces that refuse to be drowned

In the sea of horror

That moves and never stops

 

We are tress

Planted in the same soil

Yet the baobabs resents

The palm tree’s branches

And the palm trees fear the

Baobabs sturdy trunk

 

We are scavengers

Holding unto every

Piece of love and ecstasy

Till we grow numb

From subdued pain

 

We hold cyclones in our chest

Yet move with

So much ease like music

In and out of dancers’ ears

Aisha Kabiru Muhammed is winner of the Professor Andrew Nok Poetry Prize. She is a 200 Level student from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.