A small bodied thing

Upon announcing the arrival

Of my brother’s first daughter,

 

My mother fractured into watershed,

Tears so heavy you could assume

 

Someone died in our house.

How a thing of joy can spark tears

 

in the eyes of an old lady.

She is a late arrival, the baby

 

had spent an extra month

In her mother’s belly

 

& the neighbors were already

Speaking silently about it.

 

Ayo abaratintin —Joy,

so small-bodied.

 

This could be Aunty Bose

Coming back home to us.