D.M. Aderibigbe is co-editor of the anthology, More Than a Number: Poems and Prose for Baga. His first full-length manuscript, My Mothers' Songs and Other Similar Songs I Learnt received a special mention in the 2015 Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. Poems appear in African American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Hotel Amerika, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, RHINO, Stand, Weave, and has been featured on Verse Daily. A proud native of Nigeria, he holds a B.A in History and Strategic Studies from the University of Lagosand lives in Lagos.---------
In Praise of Our Absent Father
On the 5th day of a month
made of harmattan and cold sun,
my mother washed dirt off grains of rice,
chopped carrots, onions, pepper
and liver on a slab into rings ---
beating our stomachs to music.
My older sister slit open
the belly of a huge Eja Kote ---
packed out its intestine as one offloads
clothes from a bag. Beads of sweat slipped
down their faces like rain on windshields.
The sitting-room: strands of Juju
melody streamed out of the stereo ---
the house covered with music.
From the kitchen: my mother's efforts smelled
delicious. My mother wore
aso-oke --- she danced, and we ate ---
raising cups in praise of her loneliness.