Once Upon a Time,the Tortoise
Artist: Moyo Okediji
Title: Once Upon a Time, the Tortoise
Medium: acrylic on canvas
Date: 2018
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Captive No More (III)
Captive No More (III)
7.
Music is the language of tragedy,
and dance, the vocabulary of trauma.
Silence, the death of feelings,
marks the beginning of madness.
After my great grandmother in vain
yelled the name of her son, Akin,
several times, and got no response,
she stepped outside and scanned
where he was playing,
and yelled his name again,
when she did not see him there
her stomach sank
because down in the pit of her womb
she knew he was gone.
Waiting
Waiting to give a talk at a symposium at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL.
ÒÒYÀ
Like the comb (ÒÒYÀ)moves smoothly through the knotty hair
may you move without wahala through your days.
Ooya comes from yà, meaning to open up.
Who owns your body?
Who owns your body?
Would you be shocked to learn
you don’t own your body?
Ten things, I hate to tell you,
claim ownership of your body
The first owner of your body
is your name.
THE GYRATOR: ÒBÍRÍPO
THE GYRATOR: ÒBÍRÍPO Orunmila has a beautiful daughter to give away in marriage. There are three…
Captive No More
Captive No More
1
What you are reading is not poetry. It is not fiction. It is my true family history.
I am an ascendant from slavery. Yes.
It means I am a descendant of enslaved bodies. Yes.
Inside me, they locked iron collars,
leg fetters, and hand lockers. Yes.
Yes. Does it sound weird? Yes.
Slavery was real in Africa. Yes
Africa was the Ground Zero of slavery. Yes.