do you see how each day breaks, enticing the dark night into the light of a savannah morning? again and again, the slow injury of her sunrise. that first prickle of waking light fluttering on the eyelids, barely there, like a new thought edging in. a small illumination or the idea of it, blooming lily soft and yet resolute. so that with each new take through the cotton clouds of dawn, a brightening unfolds until a golden after– noon, day’s brash shining. light that clears all doubt, clarity clarified of its own steady focus –ripens. then cedes to dusk’s purple bruise, the inevitability of a panther’s moon, eons of stalking every dawn. as if every day was promised us, without history, without guilt.
Jakky Bankong-Obi writes from Abuja, Nigeria. Her chapbook What Still Yields was chosen by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for publication in the New-Generation African Poets box set, by Akashic Books and APBF (Spring/Summer 2022). Jakky is Co-Editor at Ice Floe Press and her work is forthcoming/in London Grip, The Kalahari Review, Patchwork LitMag, Gutter Magazine, Hobart Pulp, Pidgeonholes and Memento: An Anthology of Contemporary Nigerian Poetry etc. Jakky enjoys long walks, yoga and dabbles in Nature Photography. Jakky is on twitter as @jakkybeefive.