A dove is a dua

By Rabi Lawal

To live like a bumblebee,
Is to be calm through the chaos.
The world burning like the Djibouti sun.
A flame for the child soaked in tomato-
Red blood, mistaken for ketchup.
Sleep clouds the rim of my weary mind.
I love what I do to myself,
Unfurl and curl back into becoming.
My sisters’ draped skirts nearly thick enough
To shield them from men’s cruelty.
Now I sing their songs, like the kalangu resounding
Father’s rage, echoing mother’s misery.
Rest is a fleeting memory in the breeze of wanting,
I sit hand in hand with what I have become,
Flesh in flesh through-in-through with exile.
The sound of grief, exquisite like virgin spring—
The priest may hold the vessel,
But where are the good churchmen now ?
And each dying year,
My heart thrums like the belly of a beast,
Watching and waiting ,
Hands lifted in prayer.
My dua hovering above rivers and streams,
Hoping the white picasso dove comes to land
On the patio that is, my heart.

BIO: 
Rabi Lawal is a Poet, voice over artist and word maestro. She enjoys the rhythm of things and loves to light up the harmonies of the mundane. She is a graduate of Business Administration and is currently pursuing a post graduate degree in the same field . She is a member of the Chartered Management Institute, UK and an active team lead for the Green Janitors NGO. She writes with so much flavor and element of fun because she loves the humor of life. Instagram handle-  Voice_it_like_r