Here, a memory: When my father fellinto himself and the waterswithin him broke theirvows Shewilted to half of her carp.She wrapped herself in a black shawl. She,my mother, crawledto his side, put herear to his chest. Said: if a bodyis yours, youcan hear the needle of silencein its skin. She,my mother, put her mouthto my father’s ear,said I’ll call your body,which is mine, by name,you’ll come back to me.How can a body the whole lengthof which you oncetraveled with your tongue close itself to you.When he, my father, closed his eyesand breath and his body becamea bridge he had left behind on a journey andthey wheeled him down the stairs,she, my mother, sprang after them.She cried out:My name isinside his tongue. I need to get it back.
Vows
Gbenga Adesina
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“Vows” from DEATH DOES NOT END AT THE SEA: by Gbenga Adesina.
Published by University of Nebraska Press on September 1, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by Gbenga Adesina.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Gbenga Adesina, Nigerian poet and essayist, received his MFA from New York University where he was mentored by Yusef Komunyakaa. His work has been published in the Paris Review, Harvard Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, Brittle Paper, The Best American Poetry, New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere, and has been translated into six languages. His debut poetry collection, Death Does Not End At The Sea was longlisted for the National Book Award in Poetry.
Lincoln, Nebraska
In a lyrical voice at once new and surprisingly ancient, Adesina’s Death Does Not End at the Sea explores the complexity of elusive citizenship, an immigrant’s brokenhearted prayer for a new beginning, a chorus of elegies, and a cosmic love song between the living and the dead.
“Death Does Not End at the Sea is more than a great first book, it’s a mature reworking of contemporary elegy. Gbenga Adesina reconfigures the loss/ghost of his father into odes celebrating vulnerability and personality—as well as Fela Kuti in Versace and a globetrotting James Baldwin. The tender, scrutinizing spirit of Baldwin guides these beautiful meditations on the nature of love and grief. Death Does Not End at the Sea is more than a debut, it’s a revelation.”
—Terrance Hayes author of Lighthead, winner of the National Book Award for Poetry
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