Stories Of Young African Poets: Sounds And Rhymes Of Timi Sanni.

…I envy the honey,

its infinite half-

life and sweetness.

I refuse to name you,

mirror of my malady,

except that which…

I grew up enchanted by sound and rhymes, from my grandmother’s folksongs to the English nursery rhymes I devoured.

When I decided to start writing poetry, the sound had seeped into my language and made its steady heartbeat beneath my words.

Body Elixir By Sanni Oluwatimileyin

First published in the 2024 Idumaese Prize for Literature anthology.

Imagine me a ripe tomato,

my body's elixir, gone sour,

rogue nodes tempering

my body in preparation

for ruin. Imagine the red

circuit housed within me,

the hallways humming

hard as they do, the rose-

cut ruby of my life 

dimming at the very core.

Imagine me, not dead,

but hoping. 



I envy the honey,

its infinite half-

life and sweetness.

I refuse to name you,

mirror of my malady,

except that which

you already named

yourself. Sickle, saber,

scissors, scythe.

O may metaphors

be damned.



On the eve of my tenth

birthday, I woke up

and found myself dying.

I still remember the animal

horror, the pinch

and pulse of the pain.

It was one straight line

between hospital and home.

Unfortunately, the doctor

said on arrival, though,

somehow, I lived.

Ten days later, I find

a sickle cell booklet

on the cabinet. It explained

a decade of drugs. It was

freeing, if anything, knowing then

that my suffering had a name.

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Hannah Omokafe Dennis

Hannah Omokafe Dennis Is A 24-year-old Journalist, Voice-Over artist and UNFPA Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health Rights Advocate Living In Nigeria. She Currently Serves As A Community Manager In Konya Shamsrumi AndHas Some Of Her Written Works Published On Writer's Space Africa and audio stories on Genti media. She Enjoys Using Words And Her Voice To Tell Stories. She Tweets @Omokafe_forite.

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