JLF Maikaho is a Nigerian writer and poet who’s interested in climate change, photography, gender equality, mythology, history and science. She loves God, dogs, rain and the mysterious. Her works explore diverse themes and have appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Pacific, Trouvaille Review, Nnoko Stories, Kalahari Review, Eboquills, Literary Yard, Arts Lounge(IssueII) and elsewhere. She tweets @JlfMaikaho.

Majestic Resonance

Loss has called your name again
The drums of despair are beating
Earth is hungry for your dance of sorrow

Today it's not your lover quitting on you
Or your father dying on a lonely bed
Or your dog massacred on the streets

Today, you bear the burden 
Of a different kind of pain
One that drains you of energy
Forcing you to question your sanity

You convinced yourself 
That freedom was worth it
When you moved your hands 
And strangled your babies

One second, one click, one button
And your children were gone 
In a haze of literary prolicide

You thought this was the way out
That murder could free you
From the burden of nurturing

You didn't understand 
The extent of your loss
Until you parted your lips 
And your voice became a bird

Wild- defying your orders
Ambitious- running everywhere but to you
Oblivious- nowhere to be found

The lines too were fading in your head
Your fingers losing their power of creation
You wanted to go back
But the path could only be taken once

A life's work, gone in the twinkle of an eye
Where do you begin a story
Whose plot has twisted and rebelled
To overthrow you as narrator

How, how do you regain your voice
Retell the story of how you got here
How do you find your way back


The drums of grief are calling
Tum tum tumum tum tum
Earth is waiting for your feet
To dance to the tune of sorrow

Creators don't give up you say
Barrenness is alien to gods
The feet that walked in majesty
Cannot bend to the cruel hands of despair

You look within once again
Pick up the lyrics of grief and stretch them
You start there, rearranging the notes 

Molding beauty from ennui
Making new babies out of the ashes 
Of their murdered ancestors
Rediscovering your voice through the noise
And once again reclaiming your throne