The Old Village Brings Memories
Materialized by Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo on Monday, September 22nd 2025.
weeds have eaten the entrance of our old cottage as much as the browning roof. & the whole village heaves with unfamiliar noises.
before the ailment, before the death walking through the door to snatch her from our soft clutch, mama was a farmer
thrilled with the diligence of a hoe burying her metal tools on the hard pores of the earth, making fires into rabbits’ holes.
& i, light as a dry log, would take down cocoa pods, guavas, bananas, & green mangoes. & back in the kitchen, she would be there
fanning the flames with eyes reddened by exhaustion & smoke so that the night carried a laughter
broken by melon soup, even when the littlest drop of it didn't graze her tongue.
& when the goats loitered the corridors, bleating Baba’s ears almost to blood, she would toss them dried cassavas.
so when she died, it was a fishbone stuck inside our throats—too big to wash down with water, too deep in to pull out with fingers.
the path, once covered in pebbles & thickets, is now tarred & full of modern people with their modern cars & revving motorbikes. the quiet is far gone, along with
the trilling birds of mornings that woke us up for farm mischiefs. bungalows have replaced whistling baobabs, & our cottage sits in the centre like an outcast
Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arowolo is a poet and essayist from Nigeria. He won the 1st Edition of Wanjohi Prize for African Poetry, received a honourable mention in 2024 Bacopa Literary Review Poetry Contest, and was a finalist for Folorunsho Editor's Poetry Prize. His works have appeared—or are forthcoming—in 2024 Small Fictions anthology, Bacopa Literary Review, Weganda Review, The Republic, ANMLY, Nigeria Review, Breath and Shadow, and elsewhere. He currently serves as a Poetry Reader for Chestnut Review.
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