Elegy in which I am bidding everything adieu — A Poem by Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arówólò
Inverse Journal presents these haunting verses by emerging Nigerian poet Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arówólò, in a poem that attempts to seek distance from the lingering grief caused by death. In the poem, the young poet and Mass Communications student reveals the passing of his friend “who committed suicide
Elegy in which I am bidding everything adieu
There are many things here sentenced
to death, like this poem set ablaze from its
belly button—all stanzas and lines
harbouring despondency. I say adieu
to Jude who distanced his soul from his
body far beyond what a doctor could reach
and fit back into him, leaving us at the cervix
of his grave for earth to embrace our tears like
raindrops. I say adieu to my grandmother who
was undone by palsy—her body was too fatigued
of being shaky and uncontrollable like a house
quivered by the tyranny of a tornado. I say adieu
to the Chibok girls whose skulls were sanguined by
pebbles pelted from the fingertips of terrorists—
twinned from their mothers. I say adieu to the bliss
of a boy who is waterboarded by weltschmerz, still
breathing only from a wounded hope. I say adieu
to daddies thumped into oblivion on the road, their
guts approximated to the barest minimum by trucks.
I say adieu to the next poet blemished by grief I am
going to spam. Adieu, adieu, adieu, adieu…
