To “All Ma Ladies”, on IW Day 2023

To “All Ma Ladies”, on IW Day 2023:

The Silence Between Two Echoes

“Only these
Understand the eloquence of the silence
Between two echoes in a haunted cave”

(Richard Ntiru, To the Living)

Primed for survival on a heady mix
Of science and dread in an epidural link,
She has been to hell in the search for a heaven,
A slew of aborted landings punctuate
Her long haul flights in and out of labour.

The last push willed, the last push pushed,
He emerges head first from the locus of pain
And ends up in her wearily outstretched arms,
As she surrenders to the vibrant trickling of
Life back into her life, and thanks the midwife.

Now, with relief plunging down like the curtain
At the end of some bizarre cabaret act,
Two piercing screams, two echoes,
Unscripted heralds of His debut moment -
Remind her of the other debts she owes:

A silent tribute uttered, heard by Ogun
Who is generous in His gift of children;
A promise to herself that she alone
Would fix a tag on this moment of triumph.

The name had been a source of her strength,
Muttered, mumbled, as she trekked through agony:
“Abayomi … Abayomi …” she whispers now,
As the fullness of the miracle settles on her breast –

“But for this, people would have ridiculed me.”