After that call in which I chorused ‘Mother, live’<\/p>\n
The neighbour I despised loves to go with the wind:
\nwhat comes from your mouth must drop in her ears
\nbefore anyone knows what it was. I say I despise her.<\/p>\n
But on that night, she asked who I wanted to stay
\na while with, and hold sword to wrestle grief.
\nI said I was talking to my mother. And she gifted<\/p>\n
my wishes a mouthful of amen. A pinch of the hatred
\nI had for her melted into dew on my tongue.
\nThere was this curiosity dozing in her iris. So, I opened <\/p>\n
myself into a pool, a place to bury the fire in her.
\nA step closer to me broke her voice into questions.
\nSay her name. Kudiratu? Helen? Idowu?<\/p>\n
I shrieked: Brigitte is her name. She began a language
\nI do not understand. But it was her god she seeks.
\nPerhaps, she was expecting a slice of the miracle <\/p>\n
she thought had awoken my mother on her tongue.
\nShe’d thought paradise is here.
\nPerhaps I lied; my mother never died.<\/p>\n
The young woman began humming a song
\nthe kind sang during last rites to reflect hope
\nin the heart of mourners \u2013 friends and foes.<\/p>\n
I planted half of my hatred for her
\nand asked if she could amplify her voice,
\nso I could join in the solemnity of survival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After that call in which I chorused ‘Mother, live’ The neighbour I despised loves to go with the wind: what comes from your mouth must drop in her ears before anyone knows what it was. I say I despise her. But on that night, she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1398"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71007"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86332,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71007\/revisions\/86332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}