Sa’ada Isa Yahaya
The Origin of Denouement
Let’s agree, the finish line was drawn on
the palms of genesis. It grew too much,
stretched itself into the body of a serpent
until it got stuck in a man’s throat.
Darling, look⸺ there is an end coming out
from the mouth of a gun.
Another man is burying his humanity in the
lips of a bullet. Bullet kissing a child’s body.
The sacredness of the skin defied in broad daylight.
Heaven, a witness. An outburst of blood and scattered limbs.
A gathering of misplaced humanity; end.
I’ve been learning a lot lately. That whatever the body chooses
to pass through, it would recede into ash.
Nobody knows how to collect what it owns, than dust.
The night they buried my father, I understood that every
ending had something in common.
The way a gravestone is a pathway to the earth’s lips.
Look at all these closures carefully,
they began from a mouth, from an opening.
Bio:
SA’ADA ISA YAHAYA (she/her) a Nigerian teen writer and author who regards herself as God’s own piece of art, a student of Jewel Model School, Kubwa-Abuja and a member of Hill-Top Creative Arts Foundation, Abuja, is a three time winner of the on-the-spot poetry prize at HIASFEST and the first runner up in the AIPFEST SLAM 2024. Her works have received nominations for the Creators of Justice Literary Award (Youth Category), AS ABUGI National Short Story Prize. She is also a finalist for the Bkpw contest, Wakaso poetry prize and the Dawn poetry project. Her works appear or are forthcoming in literary journals including Blue Marble Review, Libretto Magazine, Còn-Scìò, Molecule, IHRAM Press, Uproar Magazine, Eboquills, Southern Arizona Press, and elsewhere. She can be found on instagram @saadaisayahaya.
