Inside Harbour Point, Lagos Island
We dance
like we are on fire.
Perhaps we are
in hell. Each one of us
circling the belly of a cauldron
the tip of our toes scalded
from fitful leaps off its floors.
And incoming north is a woman
staggering forward through the burning
hem of her dress; back bent over
by drumbeats, shoulders embellished
with gleaming ruffles; glitching
to the sting of bass strings, flaming
fingers pointing away and toward
her chest, her stomach, her head
and into her purse for a bundle of cash
that will shortly turn to ash, eyes entranced,
lips spellbound in a pout, surrendering
to a band of mad men belting her
name unsparingly, like an incantation.
And you ask yourself,
even in this place,
there is rejoicing?
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
is a Nigerian writer and editor. Her work draws from the well of Yoruba tradition, rooted in vibrant celebration of womanhood as whole and powerful. Through poetry, she aims to engage in conversations around gender, power, societal structures, and exclusion. Her work explores the experiences of women, their complex and multigenerational relationships with one another, and the patriarchy. In 2017, her poem ‘Girl’ was published in
Aké Review. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Merky New Writers’ Prize, founded by Black British artist Stormzy and Penguin Random House. She is a part of the inaugural BORN::FREE writer's collective in London, UK. In recent times, she has begun working on her debut collection of poems, as well as long form narrative threading through familial experiences to give prose to the realities of young women navigating personhood and notions of freedom in cultures where autonomy is taboo.
