(7.19.2020) Ode To Toyin by Ummkulthum Hassan

Cover art by @avivaaaaviva

 

You lay in the cold earth and I think it unjust 

How a creature like you rests in a doleful grave;

Detached from this world but never forgotten, 

I promise to remember you, beautiful one


And my thoughts of you: they hover around

With pixie-like wings they pass swiftly too

I mention to God of your loveliness and plead

For an abode above the heavens, safe with him


My daughters shall have skin the likes of hers

And in their little hearts: courage like that of hers

Pitch black hair that dazzle when damp like hers

Their speech full of life and wisdom just like hers


I shall narrate to them stories of a girl named Toyin

A girl with dreams so gold that gold envied her

I’ll tell them how her skin shone under the sun 

How she died fighting for its beauty to be noticed


All my life I shall remember you with my poetry

And I’ll send odes to the angels who look after you

Telling them how you were so powerful to destroy

So they hasten to send you to a daybreak paradise