There’s a bitterness that comes with cover
Plants wilt people return all with cover
Words are the heaviest of them all
Each dhawaaq encompasses, drapes you with a cover
Opioids have seized my people by the nafs
The shame suffocates you that is the final cover
A diaspora at war with itself
how many mango poems till you deep there are some things you cannot cover
She dropped her garments, he left his clothes
So many creative ways to shame for sickness, pride acts as post written cover
The strength of a drum that can call through time
Festac Nigeria, Mudug baadiye and our elders with dementia all join by the string of a pounding cover
My ancestors wrote about winds that carry words and souls
But we are left in their wake heel-less scratching our tongue of its cover
Calaakulli xaal we are but humans, laf and jiir and little else
But then again maybe that’s because our xirsis are little more than covers