Woman
— you’re in a rhombus of cuffing vines,
surrendered to a chokehold,
this is the maze-mold that forms you,
you’re oblivious of getting away or a way.
this is what/who has been made of you.
do you not see?
in the wandering tongue of what to say
some lips stutter in wonder,
woman this woman that,
querying God’s failure
to add an extra pound of flesh on Eve
or tone her skin even brighter than the future.
the foolish courageous turn their faces,
nose crinkled, instructing Him,
a curve is prettier than plain horizons.
different hues of nature’s bare
& every blemish shared,
brilliant hair in startling colors
coursing to the nape or robust bottoms,
velvet voices; grainy groans; wet whispers,
whether a dove or a raging inferno,
You are a curly strand on a newborn.
— hold out your staff or not
be coy Ruth beneath a cover
even Debra with a hefty gavel,
drive this poetry like a nail into you,
tear them down or up
with the space between your lips
and what comes from it,
Strut upon their way
with feet light from ashes bulk
casting aside the question,
will they, or not, see You?
Bio
Damilola Oyedeji (Ariella) is a Nigerian poet, essayist and educator. She is a creative writing candidate at Missouri State University graduate school and a past fellow of the Sprinng Writing Fellowship.
Damilola’s story, ‘Nature’s Trick,’ was included in the ANTOA Writing Contest 2021 shortlist.
Her poems have appeared and are forthcoming in Synchronized Chaos Magazine, Spillwords, Prairie Home Magazine, University of North Florida Talon Review, Belfast Review, Poetry Journal and elsewhere.
Her creative nonfiction ‘Why I Write’ was published in the 2023 Sprinng Fellows Anthology.
