The boy at the mall says his name
in a polished foreign accent.
He swallows his words in a rush,
not giving his palate the time to relish his roots.
It sounded bland. Accent, is the shadow of language,
but his doesn’t mimic his origin
— there isn’t a residue of ancestry in his mouth.
His tongue cannot call his name in the spirit of his tribe.
Like an ancestral compass crested on your tongue,
a name is the star guiding you home.
There is a longing for custodians,
we need new mouths to carry our tongue
Abu Ibrahim (IB) is a Nigerian poet. His debut poetry album “Music Has Failed Us” was considered for a Grammy nomination in 2022. His poetry has been published internationally, including in Nigeria, Canada, the US, and the UK. He has performed at prestigious events such as the Pa Gya Literary Festival in Ghana and the Lagos International Poetry Festival. His poem “When young boys go missing” won the Ink Sweat & Tears July 2024 Pick of the Month award, he is the 2024 Poetry Journal Prize winner, a recipient of the Lagos State University Debate Society Impact Maker Award for Storytelling, and the Port Harcourt Poetry Festival Poetry/Spoken Word Album of the Year in 2023.