Birth Certificate in a Rusted Drawer
Shogo Olalekan Uthman, United States
Welcome to Nigeria,
I was born,
between a power outage &
my mother's sharp scream
A strange welcome
by the nurse’s dim torchlight
Outside,
rainwater filled potholes,
frogs croaked beside gutters,
My father,
borrowed transport fare
to take me home.
He said,
“God go do am.”
That sentence
became our family inheritance.
We kept hope alive
in a rusted drawer
beside my birth certificate
& unpaid utility bills.
Shogo Olalekan Uthman is a poet and writer from Nigeria. He's a graduate of M.Sc. (Ed.) Administration and Management of Human Kinetics and Sports.The author of the poetry book “Finding Myself” and the forthcoming poetry collection “A Man's Life”. His works have appeared or forthcoming in Interrobanglit, Navy pen magazine and elsewhere. He believes in the body of work "And still I rise" by Maya Angelou. He allows his imagination to run wild and thoughts take flight. He's either editing, reading or writing.