I hear drums summoning your feet
Into spaces where women
Change their waists to rivers
And youths dance vigorously
Creating waves with their limbs.
She comes in procession of singers,
Barefooted woman
Dancer submerged in music
Swing, swing on
The waist is praised for ripples made in the arena.
I know you must dance with the elite class
And merge skill with passion
I know you must greet the drummers too
And wave them well done
Woman, pride of my riverine clan
You must be tired from countless steps
From the suppressive weight of beads
And heaps of heavy wears
But tarry,
Tarry, the drums are damping silence.
Noon, I hear drums clinging again into decibels
Fast, tempest, like a starved rain
A mass of delighted people rushes in
Interweaving oceans and winds.
It’s night, the crowd is ready,
Ready to cheer you up, homeward.
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1Iriabo: a girl or a woman undergoing the rite of womanhood
Fubairabi Benstowe is a Nigerian poet born on the 4th of August 1991. He was educated at the Niger Delta University in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. His works have been published on Praxis Magazine, Nigeria/South-Korea Poetry anthology, Mariner ANA Bayelsa State Literary Magazine, and elsewhere. In 2014, he was shortlisted for the Africa-Wide BN Poetry Award, and in 2016 was longlisted for the same award. He was a guest poet at the Ake Art and Book Festival in Ogun State, Nigeria in 2014 and the First runner-up in the Eriata Eribhabor Poetry Prize in 2014. In 2018, Africans in the Diaspora listed him as a role model. He is presently working on his debut Poetry collection, I Dare Not Spit On Your Grave.
