wake up, Rihanetu

By Haneefah Bello

healing begins whenever you are ready - Ashley Davis

honey, turmeric, 
                      chlorine & cloves. closed eyes, deep breaths,
the cracking, then the counting:
                                            how many parts were you cleaved into? 
green bells    ringing, limp shells    bringing us 
back to bone 
                            from 
dust 
onto dust.
               like rust, rot, like the first clot of blood,
                                                       loud
with the metallic tang of clay.
                                    dance with your mouth, Rihanetu, dance with your whole body.
                              lord, keep the scab away.
                    keep this bruise itchy & pink, bitchy & stinking,
                                       loud.
Rihanetu, we have not come here to swallow dust & birth manna.
how many?                                             how
many?

  BIO: Haneefah Bello is a poet and short story writer from Nigeria. She is also a law student at the University of Ibadan.  Her works have appeared in Nantygreens, Praxis Magazine and Kissing Dynamite. She is @HaneefahBello on Twitter and @ha_neefahh on Instagram.