A poem by Chika OduahÂ
I am the daughter of Nonyelum Mercy
and Ashinyeli Emmanuel
I am the daughter of well-browned forms
of Theresa, Amaka, Godwin, Ndubuisi
the daughter of dreams cobbled together in pillars that hold up the sky
I am the rays in my mother’s visions, the mass of its expanding gasp
I am the daughter of Awkuzu’s red earthen paths linking compounds joyous with melodies of children, budding youth, elders who carry mysteries in their tinkling bones and sacred trees that hold souls in glass jars dangling from branches
The daughter of Odekpe’s black soil, Odekpe’s fishermen who live by earnest devotion to the canoes that lift them, the crocodiles that save them and the river that feeds them
The daughter of farmers who bend over lush grasses with babies swaddled on their backs, hands gripped ’round the curves of blades
hands that caress the womb of the world
that reach into the warm wetness of it
then stroke, pet and yank of it tubers of yams, cassavas, greens, the supernatural, the things unseen
I am the daughter of farmers of Ogbaru
The people who dance Egwu Amala
On the bank of the River Niger glowing eerie under waves of moonlight
Waves shimmering past palm fronds – beholden – sway everlasting to everlasting
– Daughter of Nature
Except from a poem I wrote a while back, spring of 2018