Tradition

Zaynab Bobi, Nigeria

every morning,
it’s expected that a mother
would wander the street in search
for where the war pocket her son’s
body. here,
there are few ways a mother can keep
her child from hurrying out of his body
when he leaves the membrane of her arms
—everything
has a habit of running out of itself;
trees out of their leaves, rivers out of their water,
children out of their dreams.
it’s our tradition
to sink things that will drown us like
throwing shadows out of our sons to stop
them from clouding with blood,
savoring our daughters’
names to breathe soft songs, knitting
memories into cloudy coat of sky as butterflies
& morphing our mouths with hope—a prayer veil.

Zaynab Bobi, Frontier I, is a Nigerian poet, digital artist and photographer from Bobi. She is a member of Hilltop Creative Art Abuja, and a Medical Laboratory Science student of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. Her poems are published and forthcoming in Kalahari Review, Isele Review, Paddler Press, Olney Magazine, Ice Floe Press, Lunaris Review, Rigorous Magazine, Olit Magazine, TST Review, and elsewhere. She tweets @ZainabBobi.