I drew a line above our heads. Packed this new ceiling with glass to stop our friendships' progression. I drew a line above our heads to ease the inevitable collapse. Dead weight should never be carried. Least of all, upon ones head. ©Assumpta Ozua April 2017 (Response to the poem 'I drew a line...' by Toon… Continue reading Day 9: NaPoWriMo
Category: Poetry
Dear Boyfriend
On these lonesome coal-stained nights, when the air of silence and thick stench of latent indecision, lingers all around, threatening to upset her equilibrium, She will close her eyes, inhale deeply and laugh in the face of the void that he always leaves behind because her memories almost fill it. Somewhere, in a foreign solar… Continue reading Dear Boyfriend
My Sisters Keeper
Her father is not my own. My mother is not her own. Our surnames would never be synonymous and yet she is mine. ©Assumpta Ozua 2014 I know for sure that I have mentioned guarding your sphere of influence jealously on my blog before. Nevermore has this been more pertinent for me than now. As… Continue reading My Sisters Keeper
On Losing My Language
Each time an aunty at a party asks me ba wo ni? The real answer is a lodge in my throat. I reply the way I know how; I am good aunty. Days like this I shrink into a cage of shame. Maybe it’s partly to do with my father, I was hesitant to learn… Continue reading On Losing My Language
Love After Love
The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the… Continue reading Love After Love
Growing Pains
For the days when your waistline feels more like a coastline, do not blame the wind and waves, there's simply more of you to kiss the shore. ©Assumpta Ozua 2017 For quite some time [lately] I have felt a little uncomfortable in my own skin. Not because I have a problem with how I look… Continue reading Growing Pains
Memories
Today I wished I had the perfect photographic memory, or better still, a more extensive vocabulary to capture the very essence of you. I wanted my ears to transform into dictaphones so that I might record, replay and re-live all of our nonsense conversations. The ones that induce belly-laughs so deep I'd swear your jokes… Continue reading Memories
If
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being… Continue reading If
What Are You Waiting For?
When you make peace with the erratic storms within you Waves of regret will stop kissing your shores ©Assumpta Ozua 2016 I am yet to make any new year’s resolutions. That’s generally because I don’t believe in them. That’s not to say that I haven’t participated in the experience in the past – I have.… Continue reading What Are You Waiting For?