Nigeria Speaks

after Patricia Smith

By Ayokunle Falomo

Didn’t your teachers teach you
to ask good questions before

starting any venture at all?
What good is archaeology,

anyway? May I ask you
about poetry—yours, what good

is it? It’s been 10 years since you left
and I wonder: Do you miss

me still? Or even at all? Even then,

what right do you have to tell any-
one about my wrongs. About us: what right

do you have to say anything
at all? Can I ask you something

about guilt…? Do you have any

space left in your heart
for shame? Do you feel

shame, or guilt, for leaving me? Do you
even remember how to get to your father’s

house, eyes closed, without a map?
When will you stop asking for directions

to yourself? And have you learned anything
yet? What have you learned

about yourself, about me—are there things
you didn’t already know?

Can I ask what you’re willing to
teach me about myself? Can I ask what

you’re willing to do
for me? Is it too much to ask? Son,

how did it feel, when you found
out sharing my secrets with

strangers could get you a pat
on the back, an award, $250,

$500…? How much am I worth
to you, Ayokunle? Baddo, what price

would you put on
Decolonization?

If a pimp is a kind of god,
do you think yourself a god?

Are you willing to put your life
on the line for every single line

you’ve written about me?
Are you willing to die? For me?

And what exactly are you going to do
with all the bones you dig up? Son,

tell me, when will you come back home?

 

 

BIO:

AYOKUNLE FALOMO is Nigerian, American, and the author of Autobiomythography of (Alice James Books, 2024), AFRICANAMERICAN’T (FlowerSong Press, 2022—finalist for Texas Institute of Letters’ Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry), two self-published collections and African, American (New Delta Review, 2019; selected by Selah Saterstrom as the winner of New Delta Review’s 8th annual chapbook contest). A recipient of fellowships from Vermont Studio Center, MacDowell, and the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, where he obtained his MFA in Creative Writing—Poetry, his work has been anthologized and widely published.

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