ISSUE 8 | JANUARY 2024 | WOMAN ISSUE
a bird takes flight / the harvest in its mouth. it is harvest time and here I am, leaving myself behind again. you say I overdo everything. I like to think this is what being seen feels like. I overthink the names given to me at birth / I wonder why they don’t fit. I dig for new meanings when you say you love me and you leave me many times till I welcome my ghosts to stay. I boil the water till it dries up, the kettle / bereaved. I touch myself till I am turned inside out. I do not know the language to hide my tendency to overdo everything. maybe I just like to mourn lost things. maybe I like to prepare my chest for what loss feels like.
Iyanuoluwa Adenle
Iyanuoluwa Adenle is a Nigerian art writer, essayist and poet based in Lagos. She is curious about how memory, time and place work, and how we navigate life with language as a witness. Her works make a conscious attempt to explore the human conditions based on grief, loss, and love. Her writings have appeared or are forthcoming in Banshee Lit, Maroko, Peppercoast Lit, Blue Earth Review, 20.35 Africa, Olongo, Kissing Dynamite, Lolwe, Empty Mirror, and elsewhere.
Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh on Unsplash