Abdulkareem Abdulkareem
​Image by Caleb Toranzo from Unsplash                                                                                    
Abdulkareem Abdulkareem, Frontier III, is a Nigerian writer. His works appear/forthcoming on POETRY, Asterlit, Poetry Column-NND, Brittle Paper, Rulerless Magazine, Lumiere Review, Claw and Blossom, FERAL, Rigorous, Kissing Dynamite, & elsewhere. He won the University of Ilorin SU Writers Competition (Poetry Category) 2022. He reads poetry for Agbowó Magazine.
JOY i
after Pelumi Salako


​the house dances               to the music
                                          of the pestle     pounding the mortar
& this is how we make music             from the pain of the yam 
 outside     young boys propel tires into       acceleration 
with a small stick       punctuating their joy       with the sweat on 
their bodies  
        at the corridor  
                                              older women sit on a bamboo 
strewn mat              plotting words that burst      into laughter— 
dislodging      the intestines of Alaran fish  & at the backyard
           my mother sits         on a wooden stool     blowing the hand-fan
                to        the firewood in the tripod
inside           my father topples            a cup of    a thick
                    cowbell      chocolate into his throat   the night gaze upon us 
the sun   is rescinding       into        its shelter    an array of clouds  
                             here        the birds for joy      are not dead 
& their wings         patrol the sky                taking down every 
apocalypse of grief     here    we bird into joy       we joy into bird
here  my deep scars are sealed   here     my father is not dead









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