(after Safia Elhillo's January Children - the lovers)
Kaffi in the nineties
My mother with a vintage square satin scarf tied to her head
Dress that went ankles long
tracing about her curves. light, flickering in her eyes
My father
Tall & handsome
Who I hear
Was so lively and funny
That only witchery could have dried his charm
& filled his cup with gloom
The periodic count of population
the coeval that would leave to make nostalgia of these days to connect their juveniles
& grow contorted by
the day
but tonight
Into the twilight
Census told us who we are
but not where we're going
As my parents met without seeing
Zainab Kuyizhi is a Nigerian poet and a spoken word artist. Her work explores the dynamics of life and its entirety, especially, love, pain, and anger, and it’s appeared in OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review, Tilted House Review, The Ayanfe Magazine, The Tower Magazine and elsewhere. She's on Twitter & Instagram @yar_kuyizhi.