In: Anthology

The Past Tense of Country – Tiwaladeoluwa Adekunle

is when you leave
your own on purpose
and fracture
your name on purpose
and yield
your accent on purpose
and measure love
and halve joy
and swallow
indignities with thanks
and flail
as the bloated belly
of memories rise to the surface


Tiwaladeoluwa Adekunle is a writer and graduate student from southwestern Nigeria. Her poems have been published in Indiana Review, 2017 Best “New” African Poets anthology, and Breakwater Review. She was selected for the New York State Summer Writers Institute in 2016, and was honored to have won the 2017 Flo Gault Student poetry prize.

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