BECAUSE EVERY STORY BEGINS WITH DARKNESS //Poem by Precious Chidera Harrison

the story begins with darkness

just like every other story

then a voice ruffling water

& then your hands

& then your breath lights up this shack

& then you gave me a name for a garb

you can say i know nothing but i know that

light is not enough. but am I even enough?

as a child, i used to mistake fire

for light and light for fire

it is safer to live among shadows

than in the midst of noisy humans

there is a burning thirst in my chest

the urge to undress what birthed my father

today i want to unwear my name

i want to walk out of the light into darkness

& sit again among shadows

because nameless things neither rust nor wear

but are garbed in the simple guise of the hallowed

because to name a thing is to annihilate it

because whatever bears a name is detached

becomes finite &, thus, fritters

& today i want to unwear my name;

to be the simple animal i was

in the beginning of the story

because nameless things are fringeless

obscure, & glorying in eternal stasis

merges with the primal void

there is a burning thirst in my chest

the urge to dig and unearth my root

i am walking back into the night

because the night is a mother

because even light is a humour

a humming in the hollow night

because darkness often wears

the guise of the divine, inscrutable

like the face of an idol in a shrine

i jump into the mouth of the night

let darkness swallow me

for whatever it stomachs

becomes a mystery,

not vulnerable as things

naked under the glare of light

i walk into darkness. because this story

like every other story ends with darkness

©️ Precious Chidera Harrison

Precious Chidera Harrison is a young Nigerian writer, born and raised in the city of Port Harcourt. His poems have been published in Hot Pot Magazine, Arts Lounge, NWF Journal, Brittle Paper and FERAL. He was an honorable mention for the inaugural Rhonda Gail Williford Prize.