Necromancy of My Niece in Her Sister’s Body by Zaynab Bobi (Day 25 of KSR 31 Days of Poetry)

today is 16th of october, the day you died
and your mother gave birth to a baby girl.
i showed your elder sister, ummu sulaim, the picture,
and words flew out of her mouth like a violin(ing) tongue
nawal ta dawo, nawal is back.

believe me, i have drifted into night’s sleep searching
for where i will zephyr you into a dream of a baby
with an un-punctured heart, un-pausing breath.
but I heard the wind whispering your name nawal.

is it true that you are back, in flesh and blood,
or has our prayer broken open a grave in your mother’s womb?

Zaynab Bobi won the Gimba Suleiman Hassan Gimba ESQ Poetry Prize ’22. She is a rising star on the Nigerian literary scene and one of the key female poets to look out for from Northern Nigeria. She tweets at @ZainabBobi