Running palm-length
creased into rivulets
in the hands of Olodumare
the spirit
of Iya ma’ami
burrows around knuckle
before slipping
through a thin crack
and she becomes a ridge of stone:
Iyami, poured concrete
of a being, for comfort
swallows the sword of Ogun.
Yet not full, grants Yemoja
license to carve a current
through her midheaven
that flows clockwise
round progeny. Rears blades
to cut a nest
in the shallow depression,
closest still to a river’s mouth.
Flow emptying her brood
into the greater ocean.
Of the thing that ails, this opening
she leaves gaping.
To white-out her reason
I latch on to a horned ewe,
iron rod hollowing
the soft bridge of an inner ear.
What a child cannot hear
must be suffered.
Angle a severed head
towards an unfinishable sky.
Of the wound we see last, light.
mulika ojikutu-harnett
mulika ojikutu-harnett is a Lagos-born Nigerian with UK settled status. An independent producer, transpersonal coach, trainee analytic psychotherapist and Zen yogini. A graduate of Manchester Writing School currently completing a second MA at London Poetry School. Published in PERVERSE with new work forthcoming in an anthology. Their poem ‘Bruisewort’ was awarded fourth prize in the Kent & Sussex Poetry Society Open Competition (2025).
Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash