For Jumoke Verissimo by Rasaq Malik

                                                FOR JUMOKE VERISSIMO
                               

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   (Memories are many on these lanes)

                               In silence
                                 I heard
                                   your
                               raging
                               voice
                           Tramp-ling
                            down
                         Cursed
                           elders
                        In the
                     lineage
                      of our
  Shattered
histories

                          In silence
 I witnessed             your arrival

  In the moments         of tears

   You dried our
    tears-soaked                                   linens                       

            And washed away memories of
                                                             ruined moments

II
   Those                   sequences
    of pains
Pouring-
acidic        river      into our ocean
I see                    without doubt
Pains
Riding                      I heard
 on our                    The songs of morn
 hunch-backs            Your arrival brought

II
  (My garment is thorn)

         tears    are
pom-                       of
ades
 remem                 brance
Must                      we
 cuddle eyes with tears?

Verissimo
I see traces
of tears
On the                    field
behind           my deserted garden
Anthems
are mere   songs
Recited at
 the dead             of dusk

I see women with dead children
Vagrants with
lost memories
Dirges are choruses of morn
I know elegies
without learning
I see memories on these lanes