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For Leah Sharibu
You smelled the smoke and burnt stones rumbling in kanuri,
You heard Allāhu akbar and flays of unrest —
The Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati Wal-Jihad —
You shouted mama! An earth scratching in your stomach
You watched them collect you and Falmata from underneath the table, bunched with other girls into a giant truck
Allāhu akbar wasn’t what you knew in Dapchi, you heard he was good fortress
You also knew your saviour from Nazareth
The camera resized to when the militia shot into the sky, and drove through the clumps in Dapchi
One night, you saw Faltama and Fatsuma and Hajara released, plodding into the dusk
Your tears wet the mud, your prayer shawl weary from the day’s struggle
You wouldn't follow Faltama, Hajara, and Fatsuma, unless you kicked your Bible into the dwarf shrubs
Mama’s tears were baked in the hot sun when the vehicle brought the returnees home
She frisked through a bunch of people as the day sifted into the night
Leah .... Leah …. Leah ….and her voice sank into drawn curtains
Leah, slender, yonder ... the gap still gapes,
Penetrating the night that swallowed laughter
The government is like pedals on a wheelchair,
She would only drink wine and open her crotch to piss on us
Big state doesn’t declare big dick
You were stronger than the devil,
and we are birds flying away
