"Rooftop" by Kelly Emmrich
In the Rust of Ships there are Journeys by Romeo Oriogun
Circa, 1677
San Tiago, I would like to fall into pristine
sands but I am in the veins of history.
Langurs stare from trees, watching
ships steer toward Calabar.
They sail. A turtle births on these islands,
from it springs dryness, a drought
in this Portuguese halfway house,
where names disappear in the middle of sea
and the land, windy, withstood
harvest pleas of colonization.
On this archipelago of awakening roots,
sibling to hundred tribes, language
is resistance scratched into rhythm
of sticks hitting ridged bottles, criolo
rhythms into air,
into sweat on backs, food
of past lives, where a man pounds
fufu, prays over vegetables,
the meat in it, palm wine swirling
in calabash, before water
folded itself over man.
And from this slice of land,
mourna, mourna, mourna,
fireflies are singing into ships.
San Tiago, I would like to fall into pristine
sands but I am in the veins of history.
Langurs stare from trees, watching
ships steer toward Calabar.
They sail. A turtle births on these islands,
from it springs dryness, a drought
in this Portuguese halfway house,
where names disappear in the middle of sea
and the land, windy, withstood
harvest pleas of colonization.
On this archipelago of awakening roots,
sibling to hundred tribes, language
is resistance scratched into rhythm
of sticks hitting ridged bottles, criolo
rhythms into air,
into sweat on backs, food
of past lives, where a man pounds
fufu, prays over vegetables,
the meat in it, palm wine swirling
in calabash, before water
folded itself over man.
And from this slice of land,
mourna, mourna, mourna,
fireflies are singing into ships.
Read more of Romeo Oriogun's work in issue #44 of UtSQ.
Romeo Oriogun was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He is the author of Sacrament of Bodies (University of Nebraska Press, 2020). His poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, McNeese Review, Bayou, Brittle Paper, and others. He currently is an MFA candidate for poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he received the John Logan Prize for Poetry.
Kelly Emmrich is an illustrator and animator living and working in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Her work has appeared in the magazines Moonhood Magazine, Dream Noir, and Meat for Tea. She studied creative writing and animation at the University of Mary Washington. She is currently working as a beer label designer for a microbrewery in Afton, Virginia and also as a freelance animator and illustrator.
