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bloodstream

Dipe Jola

bloodstream

  the gods in your mother’s lungs resuscitated,

 they held meetings over Zoom,

    declared strike for now       because the sacrifice of lambs

             time has been ceased by 

          bodies we crowned Government.

 & you, your mother’s favorite thing,         sits idle

          in the middle of gods' pages     burning   

verses after verses   bell after bell   noon after noon.

   slowly slipping into your insanity  & this incense smoke

uprising in your throat tastes like death,

                                         like wilting flowers,

    it’s unfurling into your bloodstream – a rush of

        uneasiness traumatizing your lungs.

 & your mother's favorite music      spoons 

        into a whirlwind of black roses     & the gods,

in your palms   in your head   in your mother’s music,

      in the pages,   stood like a jar of plants   sculpting

safety out of ventilators and nose masks.

about the writer

Dipe Jola is a poet from Lagos. Her works are published/forthcoming on Minerallit Mag, African Writer, Feral Poetry, Kissing Dynamite, Turnpike Magazine, MOMENTO: an Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry (Animal Heart Press 2020), edited by Adedayo Agarau, Synchronized Chaos and elsewhere. She was the first runner up for the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize, 2018. She can be reached on Twitter via @jola_ng