SILENT MEMORIES// Poem by Jesse Pheebemi Emmanuella

There is a tale of how pillars turned poles, 

And a league of demons began to feed on my flesh,

Gulping the gizzard, like a heartless wizard.

And famine made my belly shrunk into emptiness

While I found my tongue chanting the lyrics of death.

Behold! I yearn that I may get to smell the color of hope,

And live to reach the promises painted on the face of God

So I fold gently into stunning lines and whelming stanzas,

Striving to name the poem hanging within this sacred page.

But here, every limb in my body becomes a broken city

Thus, I have learned the act of wrapping myself in misery

And just yesterday, I swallowed silence into my chest,

I gave a wink of pain, of anguish, squeezing my face 

In the pot of the witches, to see the parts of my ancestors, 

To see the pictures of their silent crossover. But alas, 

I have become a lonely girl stuck in the belly of dark nights

Spilling floods of tears which drowns my dreams into eternity

For lo! The silence I buried in my chest only remains hopeless.

 ©️ Jesse Pheebemi Emmanuella

Jessse Pheebemi Emmanuella is a fifteen  years old teen poet from Taraba state, Nigeria. The young poet passionately writes about Africa and painful pasts. She is currently a student of Helina Heritage Academy, based in Jalingo, Taraba state.