by Soyombo Ayomikun

For fourty weeks I sojourned
Inside the lonely liquor-filled world
Tumbling & living on fluid
With no friend,confidant nor foe
I longed for an escape,for liberty,for light
Then suddenly hell’s door opened

In labour mama cried & panted
With some umpires screaming ‘push’ at intervals
Dawn to dusk the battle lingered
Wished my knuckles could strike the gates open
Somewhere close by I heard a man screaming
Calling on the gods that his seed better be male

‘What is male?’,I pondered within
But then his incantations wouldn’t let me rest
Mama’s strength was then beginning to fade
Suddenly by a force divine a gape emerged
Through it I crawled into my new world
One of commotion,breeze,& light

One of the umpires screamed ‘female’
With a thought that female meant gold I was about to smile
But then papa burst into tears rolling on earth
Cursing the gods & God for painting dark his life
Unknown to us I drained so much blood from mama in labour
The trip back home with papa was one lonely & sad

The ones tagged ‘male’ lived life
They were the sanctioned spirits to rule as kings
A chamber called ‘school’ swallowed them daily
Where, I heard,their hearts receive light
Why cast me into utter darkness & sadness
Because between my legs the heavens chose to place a cleft

Then the season came when I clocked thirteen years
Happily I greeted the day with innocence & hope
When night came papa entered my room
And with a sardonic stare ordered that I pack my clothes
On getting outside to a frail greying man papa yielded my hands
For coins so fleeting I became a wife

That same night I lost dignity and hymen
From my eyes flowed tears & from beneath blood
In a little while my stomach ballooned with ‘God knows what’
I became a mother when I’m not done being a child
After some years my bladder began to leak
And after a few more years I was told malignant spirits had taken over my cervix

Why push me into darkness rather than a place in the chamber of light
That knowledge and value may stream into me
Deep within I know I am ‘gold’ divine & rare
That into this sad world could pour more meaning & beauty
I could be anything that all with bones & flesh can be
I am the Girl Child that one day can even become a ‘king’

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Op-Ed Editor