Brushing your teeth so hard until you feel pain
and see blood doesn't mean your mouth is clean

But I had been on my knees for thirty minutes
No, not praying like papa taught me to,
I was eating from my mother's pot-
The meat-filled pot nested between her legs
with her hands on my head.
And when I was done, I felt nothing.

I needed to feel something.
I always need to feel something every fortnight,
when papa travels in his white garment to a distant land,
Preaching against the Jezebels and the witches.
I brushed harder.
May be the pain will serve as punishment for this álù
May be this time, when I kneel to pray,
my bloody mouth will be made clean.


(álù meaning abomination)
©deedee_ofili