EVERY GIRL IS A PENDULOUS ROSE by Arikewusola Abdul Awal (Nigeria, 21)

This poem is about my sisters,
Sa’adatu, Chiamanda, & Damilola.
Meaning, every girl is a pendulous rose, waiting
To spill her fragrance on the face of the earth.

Tell me, what is more cruel than
Stripping a flower off its fragrance?

​I see my sister’s voice echoing into exile
Because father labels her with nubility.

I see my sister’s dreams setting with
The sun because this place offers her

Dreams achieved only in her dreams.

I cry for my sister who rummages the rooms
Of her body in search of her essence, but

I cry for my sister who rummages the rooms
Of her body in search of her essence, but

Say, every place devoid of my sister lacks
Fragrance, lacks tenderness; lacks

Everything that makes life beautiful.
Adam was gloomy in a room, tell me,

Why did God beseech Eve into his arms
If not to morph gloom into a paradise?




​Arikewusola Abdul Awal writes from Oyo state, Nigeria. His poems have appeared/are forthcoming in Afritondo, The Kalahari Review, Brittle Paper, Synchronized Chaos, Spillwords, Eboquills, and elsewhere.