1

sometimes, you walk like the flapping udder of a cow

because you’re tired

too tired of being in a home that hurts like hell because of your father

2

as a toddler, “baba” was the next best word on your tongue after “mama”

the word made the sun shine in your eyes

but to say “baba” now tastes like burning bitterness

for he has punched too many holes in your life

because he claims you’re a photocopy of your late mother

how can a man that welcomed you into the warm embrace of his arms

now forces you into the cold, crushing embrace of his thighs?

3

they tell you to move on with punctuations of pity on their faces

you’re not the only one with a rapist father

but you don’t even understand what moving on means

you only know that the ship of your feet is sinking

in the sea of your father’s semen

4

so many times

you imagine yourself hanging in the open embrace of the ceiling fan in your sitting room

like you have seen in a number of nollywood movies

with the lasso squeezing out your father’s fluid that has clogged your throat and thought

you just wish to be free

5

you don’t wish for so many things

you wish not to be this girl you are now

a 12-year old girl that has carried the world in the creek of her thighs

all you really wish for is to be a happy girl in a happy family

but life here is a wasteland of wishes…