On the flyleaf of her Bible,
a girl crafts a collage of you;
your tousled hair, a thatched roof in flames;
breasts as withered ivy clinging to the body
of a blank gravestone;
face cut from a mirror
reflecting a pebble sinking quickly into a lake;
there’s also your belly bulged
enough to fit in her body as a stillborn.
In Kakuri—that night—you were Lot’s wife
looking over her shoulders to retrace
the bush where you dumped her in a carton
but the path had meandered
into a house of green-eyed shadows that call you
mother from a shelf of bottles.
–
Martins Deep (he/him) is an Urhobo poet living in Kaduna, Nigeria. He is a photographer, a digital artist, & currently a student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. His most recent works have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Lolwe, 20.35 Africa: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, FIYAH, Cutbank Literary Journal, Existere Journal of Arts & Literature, Brittle Paper, Barren Magazine, Agbowó Magazine, & elsewhere. He tweets @martinsdeep1.