Nomenclature by Taofeek Ayeyemi
under my father's sky, there are no nameless things.
in his book, there are no untitled poems.
there are many ways we decorate our pain,
euphemize our fear & grief lest they bloom with pride:
when a nail runs into your leg, you don't
call it nail, you call it a mouthcuff;
at night, a snake is not a snake but a rope in motion.
but why we are afraid of pronouncing our joy, i don't know.
i don't know why at night we call salt the 'sea sand.'
father told me our surname was restyled by his grandfather;
that a man can be renamed before he turns forty;
that sometimes names are there to fortify their bearers;
that the way to the intestine is the way to heaven,
so a man must reborn and rename himself behind borders:
but must not forget the child of whom he is.
& lineages are not cobwebs around our feet,
they are feathers warming us up for flight.
in his book, there are no untitled poems.
there are many ways we decorate our pain,
euphemize our fear & grief lest they bloom with pride:
when a nail runs into your leg, you don't
call it nail, you call it a mouthcuff;
at night, a snake is not a snake but a rope in motion.
but why we are afraid of pronouncing our joy, i don't know.
i don't know why at night we call salt the 'sea sand.'
father told me our surname was restyled by his grandfather;
that a man can be renamed before he turns forty;
that sometimes names are there to fortify their bearers;
that the way to the intestine is the way to heaven,
so a man must reborn and rename himself behind borders:
but must not forget the child of whom he is.
& lineages are not cobwebs around our feet,
they are feathers warming us up for flight.
Taofeek Ayeyemi, fondly called Aswagaawy, is a Nigerian lawyer, writer and author of the chapbook Tongueless Secrets (Ethel Press, 2021) and a collection aubade at night or serenade in the morning (Flowersong Press, TBD 2021). His works are in Lucent Dreaming, Ethel-zine, artmosterrific, Banyan Review, tinywords, the QuillS and elsewhere. He is Taofeek Ayeyemi on Facebook and Twitter.
Márcia Tannure is a visual artist, born in Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil. She started her artistic practice when studying porcelain painting. Later, she studied observation and artistic design at INAP / MG. She graduated in Social Work from PUC-Minas with a postgraduate degree in art therapy from Projeto Terra / MG. Some years later she moved to Rio de Janeiro / RJ, where she studied Sculpture at the School of Fine Arts of UFRJ. At the visual arts school Parque Lage she studied contemporary art and exhibition design. She currently lives in Niterói / RJ, Brazil, where she develops research in fire arts and has great inspiration from nature. You can find her on instagram: @marciatannure