everywhere weed grows is a wild mouth eating childrenthere are flowers you can’t touch              outside someone’s houseat night, a motherpounds the head of her newborn        at first, it is music      then the silence of cricketswe gather dust sand        murals wilt flowers        worn sandals    iron cast Ìbàdàn over dreamswe collect the first fruits         ones older women snatch from us in sacred roomsfried in sin                     my aunt’s husband sacrifices her for riches        the shade of shadows stands stillin his courtyardwe no longer go to their house        no longer eat the food          my cousins bringin baskets covered with hand towelsi kick a frog out of my slippers        put saliva on my wound           leave for school the morning iwas kidnapped& when they found me        i was standing by a NEPA pole insensible          the window ofgrief that opened in my family         shut itself & opened in a house down the street         childrenbegan to die  thenwe could no longer go to the playfield at dusk to run & sing & dance & call someone ojuju& watch them cry                    & sing them sakasakashushu                                         everywhere weed grows is a wild mouth eating childreni dream that someone carves out my friend’s eye from its cavity & the next day he is lost  foreverwhat do i know about leaving that held the hands that snatched me?we gather dust for bodies that never make it home                               pray over their bodiless graves, wash our hands in the river down the road                      & lock ourselves in