black-ish - Ofem Ubi

Lamnetations

June 8 2018 , Written by Ofem Ubi Published on #Black-ish

photocredit- ubuntu talks My mother now looks at her grand children, descendants of an adopted culture. She laments at the foreign names they bear, and how much they yet sound like periwinkle too twisted even for her own tongue to grow familiar with....

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White Blood Cells

June 6 2018 , Written by Ofem Ubi Published on #Black-ish

My mother looks at me with a half-baked smile photocredit- afropunk She tells me the oyibo has replaced my tongue with theirs so much everything I say now has a touch of innit in it. She fears that I One day will call her by her maiden name. One time...

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Learning

June 5 2018 , Written by Ofem Ubi Published on #Black-ish

photocredit- sinistar22x2 I am learning all over again, the sound of my name. How to condition my tongue when saying good morning in my mother’s dialect. I am learning again, the taste of okra and ogbono, how to rumble with the never ending elasticity...

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Charcoal

June 4 2018 , Written by Ofem Ubi Published on #poetry, #Black-ish

photocredit- artnews africa Drown me back in charcoal For henceforth, my body refuses to be counterfeit, A judas to itself. Remind me of who I am and where I come from. Start with my skin, then to my mind, back to my skin again, and then inside. Heal...

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Orb

June 3 2018 , Written by Ofem Ubi Published on #poetry, #Black-ish

photocredit- legacybros Black drips from off your body, like a runaway milk from a peak can. Bleeding zinc, torn, pouring deep into every other breathing container Leaving trails behind, telling tales of you and those before. In this orb of leaking melanin,...