These three poems by Sumaila Umasiha were especially chosen for The Bala Selection.
The Bala Selection is a bi-weekly poetry feature curated by Ismail Bala for Konya Shamsrumi, showcasing distinctive new voices and resonant works from across Africa and beyond. Through his discerning eye, each selection highlights the craft, music, and emotional clarity that define contemporary poetry in its most luminous form.
Ismail Bala is a poet, translator, and critic whose work bridges classical poetics and modern sensibility, and whose mentorship has shaped a generation of emerging African poets.
I Will Sing a Lullaby
When the sun has made
her round, serving
east to the west
I sit by her grave and
sing a lullaby to the boil
in the armpit of time.
When the season,
dressed in dry leaves,
sets rot in the belly of
maggots, to check leaks,
I sit and count my luck
saved in a future past.
We are promises made
in jest, words thrown
about tracks and falls:
when the sun has made
her round, setting on my
grave, I will sing a lullaby.
She Comes
Her mood comes in colour;
blue or white, sometimes
green mixed with tears.
Silence is the language
of the river, lapping whispers
in the damp ears of the shore.
The tide comes unexpected,
when the night, simmering,
sleeps awake at the door.
At times she comes at dusk,
and leaves at dawn with me -
leaving me to the flames.
Missiles, Missiles…
Our skies are wide open,
freedom restricted only
by cowardice and missiles
on a mission astray.
Our earth a virgin of
pea trees, groaning with
nuts, moaning nipples
ripe for rapists.
But the land is barren of
rapists, all gone to war by
the ocean’s mouth, sharks
feasting after a long fast.
Today, the earth, playing
games not meant to be
won, cleanses herself in
the Red Sea, a vampire
after the carnival.
About Sumaila Umasiha
Sumaila Isah Umaisha has worked as a Literary Editor since 1994 with several media organisations, including Hotline magazine, New Nigerian Newspapers, and Blueprint Newspapers, and later served as Editor at Nigerian Newsday Newspaper from 2013 to 2020. His work in literary journalism has earned him multiple awards, notably the Literary Journalist Prize of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), which he won twice, in 2004 and 2007.
His short stories, poems, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous national and international journals, magazines, and anthologies, including Drumvoices Revue (USA) and The London Magazine. His first book, Hoodlums (2010), a collection of short stories, is a recommended text in several Nigerian universities. His novel Glasshouse (2022) was longlisted for the James Currey Prize for African Literature and shortlisted for the ANA Prose Prize in the same year. His recent works include the play Iburama (2023) and the novel Lost in the Wild (2024).
He is the founder and coordinator of Authors’ Hub, a global writers’ collective dedicated to nurturing young writers and advancing literary development.
