These three poems by Usman Karofi were especially chosen for The Bala Selection.
The Bala Selection is a 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.
Maiden
The busy street is now silent
Without a sight trespassing
Wait, let me coll the luggage of feelings
You carried all through the city
Don't forget if we leave this street
Our secret will grow into a sun
And flow like night serenades
Capturing every ear on its way.
We shall couch here
Because the next street is a gallow
A confluence
Where lovers' promises fade
Like the sun just married to dusk
In it you only hear voices
Of those lost trying to escape it
Shadows of grief
Can be felt as you saunter through its tales
In it, mothers lost themselves
Trying to save their sons
Only to come back home
With a stranger who looks like their sons
Maiden,
We have a choice
To stay on this street and express the feelings we carry
Or walk to the next street that might destroy us
Leaving only a shadow
For those blessed to be doomed to see.
Because on that street,
Nobody talks about your dark-skinned grapelike skin
Nobody writes about the vacations we have
Nobody tells how we undress the metaphor of longing
That is burning through our souls
Nobody remembers the exasperations of the desire we never live to paint
Because we choose not to exist.
Dear Maiden
We've sauntered through this meadows of emotions just like our vows reads "till death do us part"
The question that keeps coming back is, are we still alive? Do our words really break the chains of intoxication that sobriety can only be achieved through our poems?
Conscience
My conscience now drinks
juices from virgin cups
that resurrect faith
masked in spiritual slumber
of many unanswered prayers
Rain comes with false hopes
watering the graves of souls
that have seen light at the end of a tunnel
In the form of a gunshot
Night has no meaning
Its darkness has been raped by the lights of guns
Casting doubt on the faithful
When the imam said
"Prayer is an arrow"
And now I'm thinking
Who is sending us arrows throughout the day?
About Usman Karofi
Usman Karofi is a Nigerian poet and co-author of the poetry collection A Song of Endless Flames. He currently serves as a Program Officer at Poetic Wednesdays Initiative, where he supports literary programming and contributes to projects that promote creative expression and community engagement.
