Elohim / teach me to forget
i remember how my father violently plucked my mom’s smile / like fruits.
he was like a turbulent sea in her life.
my mother was a lover of flowers / especially the grandiflora rose,
but in all of her previous birthdays / papa never gifted her one.
rather / his eyes turned red like blood when other men gifted her flowers
& gifts on her birth days / & she only accepted the gifts because it was her birthday.
before my eyes, papa turned mama’s face into a punching bag.
he roared out of jealousy—turned her body to his playground till she
melted away like candle. he found solace in between another woman’s
legs / in his bed of lies. he changed women / as though changing clothes.
he turned a lad to an orphan / because his presence brought agony
& stunk like a madman’s cloth. he soaked my body with water / till i became
drenched like one beaten by the rain. i tasted his fist on my face / till my mouth
became sore with bits of blood dropping like raindrops / his iron hands tossed me into coma.
he made me feel like a product of goof / he was just a living dead to me.
i turned my room to a garden & planted a grandiflora rose, so i would always
feel mama’s presence / after her demise / but he still detested a grandiflora rose
like it was my mom he was seeing / death walked in without knocking and took him away.
i guess he forgot death is a collector of souls / so, i flowered his grave with
a stupendous grandiflora rose / he detested it & my mom / even his soul won’t
be able to remove the flower from his grave / & this memory razors my heart
Elohim / teach me to forget.
Salami Alimot Temitope is an ardent and avid writer, a student of the Lagos State University, Nigeria and currently lives in Lagos Nigeria. She writes with simple and factual themes, she serves as an advocate for women, and finds solace in writing and singing. She’s an aspiring novelist and playwright and serves as a voice to the voiceless.
Her poems have appeared on Nnoko Stories, Pawners Paper, The Hearth Magazine, Nymphs Magazine, Kalahari Review, Arts Lounge & elsewhere.
