The Girls In Me Who Disappeared

By Emitomo Tobi Nimisire

liquor meets flickering cigarettes
fireworks: sin glimmers in this body
this is a festival where my soul
re-christens itself darkness in heathens' tongues
 
on days light crawls in through the blinds
the mirror reflects all the girls in me
who disappeared into the abyss
fighting, screaming as they slipped: lord save us
 
there is a headstone buried in my chest:
here lies a god
who couldn't outrun its demons
who didn't try to.

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Emitomo Tobi Nimisire’s comma life was messed up by Strunk & White and Mary Norris. She writes from Ibadan, Nigeria. She blogs at www.nimisire.wordpress.com. Find her on Twitter: @Nimisire.