To begin with, I was a filthy water
arranged together by God
 
he distilled the filth and
made a pure soul out of me, he skinked me
 
like wine into the abdomen of a strange woman
 
God inserted my name in the memory of 
birds / they whisper all around about my coming
 
like a Messiah foretold by a prophet
he made my name the topic of concern
in the mind of my mother
 
The sun smiled
The joys were glaringly visible             flowers sprouted in beauty
 
as I became delivered, my mother's face
rekindled into a smile,               she held me like truth
 
I became the pressing thought of my father
like a cresent, I started growing into
full moon
 
light began to show brightly in my body
as I sought answers to the purpose of my creation
 
Life began to
unfold like scraping off the cloth of onion
 
how my father's body was all smelly of grief
and death struggled into his lungs
first as a cough, second as ache in tooth
 
I am still here in this room, alone
thinking about what will unveil next,
about my life like a blank page

Biography

ARIYO AHMAD is a Nigerian poet who hails from Ogun state. He has poems published and forthcoming in Kalahari Review, Iman collective, Native skin lit Mag, Rigorous, Ngiga review, Ninsha Art, African Writers Magazine, Words and Whispers journals, Nymphs Magazine, amongst others.

He was an honorable mention in the Fitrah review contest (2021) and also the Poetry editor for fieryscribereview. When he is not writing, he finds himself relishing Khalil Gibran’s poem and tweets @ahmad_akanni