Memory’s Hold on Mother’s Day (A Poem) by S. Su’eddie Vershima Agema

(for Chris Ayede-Agema, Marie Aduro, Dora Oyana, Eugenia Abu, Agatha Agema & Hyginus Ekwuazi)

[The parts are in Tiv: Mom = One, Uhar/Uhwa = Two; Utar = Three; Unyiin = Four]

1 [Mom]
The fires of life are lit from wombs
that warm nine months to bring wonders
whose brightness deny smokes.

Theirs are tales,
ours, all narratives—

these tales fill our life
footnotes of strife that mount memories,
foundations of our strength, to fight, win, lose and live.

II [Uhar/Uhwa]
An early chapter appears on my mind’s sheets:

Me, shivering with upturned eyes
my tale spiraling to a close
even as I called your name to deliver me from fever
Mummy!

What other name burns in a child’s heart
in times of strain?

But you were far away,
seeking means to find our bread of sustenance.
You arrived home at midnight, after a seventeen-hour shift,
wearing tiredness like a coat.

Your eyes met my shivering frame.
Motherly instinct undressed your exhaustion,
as you picked me up
your feet became wings speeding our run
to the nearest hospital miles away.

We had silence for our companion
and when it became too comfortable
a sob from you or some more clattering from me
we found the home of healing after an eternity on our feet;
me on your back like a rider on a donkey.

By dawn, I was well enough to smile my way to another day,
you simply took your bath and found the road to work again

III [Utar]
The chapters roll and quickly, I find myself
years away: our tale has made me a wandering man
seeking bread for my mouth
and the boy who took a ride on your back yesterday
walks the streets today to seek remnants of wealth
that hides in the country’s yesterday.

Your voice is a whisper that sneaks on the other side,
a laugh only you can conjure appears in my mind
I try to translate it to words
but you cut me short:

hello son… I can’t talk much… the boss is watching
and I have hours to clock before I close…

It is Sunday and your increasing grey is no excuse
to decrease your Manor hours, seeking
the bread you have placed on our tables
through the several pages of our tales.

I nearly charge at Napoleon who lets you work
blind to the bend time has brought to your waist…

The piper dictates, You answer my unsaid charge

I swallow poverty’s impotence
the line clicks off as work drags your love away
leaving me with a memory of warmth no distance can hide

IV [Unyiin]
Aôndo, if you live above the clouds as you do in our hearts
best author writing our tales
please, rid her of every torment
send memory to help give her more pleasurable moments…

Let the spirit of every fire live on
let the smokes be dispersed…

Life is a narrative, and you, Mother, remain the heart of this tale
a fire that burns bright in all our hearts.

From Memory and the Call of Waters (SEVHAGE, 2022)

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Su’ur E. Su’eddie Vershima Agema is a multiple-award-winning writer, cultural activist, development consultant and one of Nigeria’s most notable poets in 2022. He has won the Association of Nigerian Authors Poetry Prize (2014 & 2022), the Mandela Day Short Story Prize 2016 and was a finalist for the Nigeria Prize for Literature 2022. He is also the editor at Konya Shamsrumi.