nights that forget my mother is the
queen of nabor
transmogrify her duvet into prickly palm
fronds & lodge
her barefoot at the frontier of ash
kingdoms
she tiptoes over landscape of
blackened bodies
there —a woman's breast sliced like tarred pumpkin
there —a depthless pit hiccups as
unbreathing halved humans fall in
there —noodles of worms twirl in an
infant's nape
there—questions of massacre wither in a
wrecked gut
*
in the morning she sponges with gospel
songs
to saw off cascade of angsts
a sanitary ritual for a flaming
memory
ya allah na baka zuciya na
oh god you gave me my heart
jeremiah gyang's music rinses her heart
with ecclesiastic notes
she plucks his tongue from the
cassette player & wrings
lyrics of hope & peace & joy
& gentle spirit & love & eternal rest.
*
i trace hooves of ghost horses on
mountaintops
my durag flutters with faunas whose
wings are compasses
i'm armed with psalms in my chest &
my quiver
spills monkish recitals
there's an axis angling to heaven rayed with
sunbeams
& moonlight
i leap onto a bandit's tree despite
my banditry
being a shivering chick.
i break a twig & fly
God must know about women like my mother
women who are familiar with old
shadows
shadows that swallow rain & become
obese
He must know to rain us with a different kind of healing
waters
