Hickory
(a poem of Kano, Nigeria)

through the blowing sand
you’ve seasoned
in front of these few little embers
your shrivelled feet cracking
like dried river beds

what do you see
through those eyes you carry
in the rags you’re twisting
to tie up a goat
the memory of a way lost
in the turn of time
and weathered in this shed
where you bow your head

Copyright © 1991 Asili Ya Nadhiri