“I scattered my mother’s ashes in the air – A Poem by Daisy Odey

I scattered my mother’s ashes in the air

Since then the wind carries
her on its back, and leaves
her on some stranger’s door step.

I think of her sometimes,

And see the word hypertension
Lift off a doctor’s tongue,
Become a tombstone
As it falls on mine.

I think of her sometimes,

And see how time continues taking.
the seasons keep turning their hands
hours run along, hide in long minutes
In the corners shadows grow and diminish

The seasons keep turning their hands

And my mother is still falling
soothing a hard world
with her soft places.

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Daisy Odey @daisyodey is a Nigerian poet. She is the author of the chapbook Fragments in a closet which was published in the African Poetry Book Fund (APBF) New Generation African Poets Chapbook Box Set (2019), edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Prairie Schooner, Memento Anthology,  The Ake Review (3rd edition), Saraba (Issue 22), and others.

Banner Art: Sky of Birds/Flight , a digital art work by Robert Frede Kenter @frede_kenter