Titilope Sonuga
Titilope Sonuga Poems
I am
gap tooth black girl
back corner of class
scribbling left-handed
...
This is how you heal the wound
i
cleanse it with salt water
it is the only way
...
I wanted to write you a poem
Etch you bold and timeless
Wanted to sing your praise
Find words to describe you flawless
...
It is this deep, dark, empty thing
caught between chest and throat
begging lips for relief in words.
The noise of 2 million heavy sighs
...
"No matter who my daughter is when she comes back,
she is my daughter and I want her back home."
i.
...
In the dream
I close my eyes and count backward from 276
the girls crawl feet first from their hiding places
behind the curtains where their feet stick out
...
i
By what name do we call the girl
when she comes back?
...
I come from a place
where mothers go to battle each day
with a baby strapped across their backs
another still clinging from their breast
...
i
What do we do with the bodies?
How do we gather them up
or know which arm goes where?
...
I once saw a man on fire
a gasoline soaked rubber tire around his neck
arms flailing like he was trying to fly
...
Centuries from now
when the archaeologists
shake the dust from your bones
let them marvel at this thing
...
Titilope Sonuga Biography
Titilope Sonuga (born in Lagos) is a Nigerian-Canadian poet, writer, actor and performance artist. She has taken the stage at festivals in Lagos, New York, Edmonton and Toronto among others. Her first collection of poems, Down To Earth, won the 2011 Emerging Writer Award of the Canadian Authors’ Association. Her Spoken Word album Mother Tongue was released in 2013. In 2015 she performed at the Inauguration of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari.)
The Best Poem Of Titilope Sonuga
I Am (With Music)
I am
gap tooth black girl
back corner of class
scribbling left-handed
poetry on blank paper
save the school's
curriculum for later
I am
overflowing tales by moonlight
trickling off the tip
of my grandmothers tongue
you will find my mother
tongue here
fast and fluent Yoruba
criss crossing English
hidden messages in
prose and proverbs
call it Yorubanglish
I am
the miracle of melody
nestled deep in the groove
of rich hi-life rhythms
a child
of the marriage
of hip-hop and afro beats
you can hear our voices
pulsing beneath the skin
of a talking drum
commanding hips to move
without caution
but caution
this is where a woman is born
where she learns the infinite
connection between her waist line
and the baseline
I am
sky high gele
bold and beautiful
meets stretch skinny jeans
we redefine style
wear our stories around our necks
and from our ears
so we never forget
the voices of ancestors
I am
what they never
taught you in history books
legacies of age old traditions
incantations of ancient griots
a nation of story tellers
the beautiful and the broken
the struggling and the surviving
the ones they said
would never make it
this is who
I am
Titilope Sonuga Comments
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Poems are the property of their respective owners. All information has been reproduced here for educational and informational purposes to benefit site visitors, and is provided at no charge...
1/9/2026 2:30:04 PM # 1.0.0
Dear Admin, I am a final student of the University of Ibadan, English department. I want to use the collections of Titilope Sonuga's poems for my final year project. But I do not know where to get them. Kindly help with at least an online store that I can get " This Is How We Disappear" and " Abscess" . Thank you, My email - discreetpetersgmail Contact- +2347065440917