hoping you seed into a mimosa
that opens to only my touch
hoping I could fetch from your
shy fern a goblin full of honey
hoping your soil sinks & holds
my sweet spittle
so that I can water your leaves
before they wilt & spread your
petals, bowl-like, fetching the
sunlight of a new dawn
I will rouse every woman in you
into a chorus of my oriki
– a hymn that praises my lineage
so that your compound leaves
folding inward, shamefaced
against other touches, will open
to mine with giggling petals.
Babatunde Waliyullah Adesokan
(Toonday) writes from Oyo State, Nigeria. He works with First Bank. He is a lover of poetry, and everything that breathes poetry.