Mimesis
upon a saint’s grave lies a litany of prayer
dissolving into a pound of soil. what scrapes
from a faithful pilgrim with white bird in his
chest & white beards on his jaws than juicy
flesh, to show him dead? i’ve walked into
dreams to understand what desertion means:
perhaps, is it the frozen lake a wild hog melts
into like a piece of his culture he carries on his
nose? who says we don’t admire God, we do?
Or perhaps, we admire the flower that breathes
behind His throne, too. you see? Even the angels
have a garden of light they pluck breath from,
like snowballs, as snow men. what silences a
graveyard isn’t the presence of dead bodies but
the absence of humans’ scent. i wonder if tearing
a spiderweb means ruining his home and casting
its bangles out into the cold, like a refugee, like
how my mother sheds off the skin of her local
color & nail a husk that reeks of modernism on
her ears. do these children know that local drums
have the voices they weave into our ears? & do re
mi aren’t just notes but a series of hushed voices
waiting to be touched by hands cold and frozen
interpretation. i don’t remember if my lineage pane-
gyrics starts with my father’s name or his father’s,
or his father’s father yet i do know, this language is
nested into the water that drizzles beneath my legs.
iyawo n lota (the bridesmaid is grinding pepper)
ileke n saso (the beads on her waist her grumbling)
ileke ma saso mo (beads, grumble no more)
je ki iyawo lota (let the bride grind pepper.)
i wonder if this song ever fall from mother’s tongue
like mockingbirds fall into the palm of their deaths.
Sunday T. Saheed, the author of Rewrite the Stars, is a 17-year-old Nigerian writer, and a Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation member. He was the 1st runner-up for the Nigerian Prize for Teen Authors, 2021. His works have appeared or are forthcoming on Rough Cut Press, Brittle Paper, The Comstock Review, Salamander Ink, Aster Lit, The Lumiere Review, Poemify, Afrocritik, My Woven Poetry, Arts Lounge, SprinNG, Rigorous mag, Kissing Dynamite, Beatnik Cowboy, Trouvaille Review, Augment Review, Spirited Muse Press, Gyroscope, Giallo Lit, Open Skies Quarterly, Kalahari, Cajun Mutt, Open Leaf Press Review, Re Side, de Curated and others. He is also an asst. editor for The Nigeria Review (TNR). He was shortlisted for the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, 2018, The New Man Gospel Poetry Contest and BKPW Poetry Contest, 2022. He can be read on linkfly.to/sundaysaheed or reached on Instagram @poetsundaysaheed
