​//Unearthly//

//Unearthly//

1/7/2022

By Mahbubat Kanyinsola Salahudeen

It often happened at dinner.
The whistling
then came the blast
followed by an expulsion of breath
and knowing that I have been spared but only just
While somewhere
amid cries and choking clouds of smokes
there was a scrambling
a barehanded digging
of pulling out debris
what remained of a sister,
a brother, a grandmother

I wasn't at all surprised
when father said
fate is what is beyond man's control

In every book
everyone has a chapter
we reincarnate,
we come back again,
we are all characters
entertaining God

But then I wonder
if God was smiling or sobbing
when our breath
was rinsed by death
while we entertain.

Writer's Biography

Mahbubat Kanyinsola Salahudeen is a writer, spoken word artist, poet, and human rights activist. She is a Communication and Language Arts student at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She has works featured and forthcoming with Spillwords, Poetry Anthology, Biscuit Hills, Mudroom, Ice Flow Press, and elsewhere. Besides storytelling, she is intrigued by music, sports, catering, and historical movies. She is a 2021 Girl Up Scholarship Fund Recipient, a 2021 Girl Up Project Award Recipient, and a winner of the 2021 IHRAF Creators of Literary Justice Award.

2 Comments

Esther Abubakar

2/7/2022 07:02:50 pm

The rhetorical question 'oh Death where is your sting?' has being answered.
I remembered my experience as a child during the Ikeja cantonment bomb blast! Indeed we can't author our fates.
This paints a perfect picture of the fragility of human life like that of a plant. Today here, tomorrow gone...
Like the poet wondered; I wonder too. Does he
God laugh or sob at the end of each character chapter?
I guess that will depend on if the character was a protagonist or antagonist.
An interesting read I must say!

Damilola Ogunbona

11/7/2022 07:08:39 pm

Death has always been a mystery no one demystifies, a fate unavoidable, the poet pictures the theme of mortality as fate in such an articulate manner re-emphasizing the reality that, Death is never a surprise, it is a fate that sometimes comes with pain, as in the case of the poetic persona.

//Unearthly//