Ajise Vincent
recompense
the night mum exited the door of ache and grief,
father instructed us to spread out our pain
on mats in mosques so that they will crumble
under the weight of men rendering solat to God’s ear.
in the midst of salvation and recompense,
we saw dad sob, his tears like a mirror,
reflecting the solitude of his nightmares
to the psychologist who conducted
a psychometric test on mona lisa.
like the search for a lost coin,
we sought a body he could fill with love,
a lip that tastes of mercy,
a kiss that won’t trade his essence
for thirty pieces of silver but found none.
it’s been two years since his first session of healing,
his tongue still speaks the language of loss.
sometimes memories of mum tiptoe to his senses.
he presses his ears against his body,
hears her echo on the walls of his flesh;
in rusty memories of joy, in silhouettes of quietude,
dangling like judas on a tree.
my father now stares at absence
as if longing for mother’s return
he now grieves with his shadow
in silence, in groaning and
monochrome of rust.
Bio:
AJISE VINCENT is an Economist based in Lagos, Nigeria. His works have appeared in Jalada, Chiron Review, Asian Signature, Ann Arbor Review, Yellow Chair Review, Bombay Review, Birmingham Arts Journal, The Cadaverine, Saraba, Brittle Paper, Sentinel Quarterly, and elsewhere. He is a recipient of the Eriata Oribhabor Poetry Prize 2015 and the Akuko Poetry Prize, 2021. He loves coffee, blondes and turtles.
