The Birds

A bird skirts across the fence
& I rush to the window
to behold its flapping wings—
It’s been ages
since I last saw a bird.
My only link to nature here
is my landlady’s dog,
locked in its cage,
barking furiously at all
but no one.
I see the sedated rams
lined along the street
a few blocks away.
I shrink my nose
every time I walk by
yet the smell still follows
like it’s a dump site.
To love the earth is to place
your heart in a glassware.
The gutters by the roadside,
clogged with nylons, papers
& whatnots. The rain will
pelt heavily on our roofs,
submerge the earth,
struggling to escape
into somewhere, anywhere
finding space only on the roads,
the houses, the people.
It swallows us—
the flood escape into us
& all the birds skirting away.

Rahma O. Jimoh is the author of “Ashes” selected by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani for the New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Box set (Akashic Books) 2025. Her works have appeared in The Slowdown Show, Salt Hill Journal, Zocalo Poetry, Agbowo, Ake Review, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Lucent Dreaming, Isele Magazine, Brittle Paper, Tab Journal & others. She is a Springng writing fellowship mentor, a poetry editor at Olumo review and prose reader at Chestnut review.