I had forgotten what Eternity was like
Loitering as I have at the door posts of Time.
I had forgotten Eternity because Time is so much louder.
The force of Time is the force of realisation. Eternity
Is like trust. She moves subtlety in spheres
Like a planet in orbit. Time moves sharply
Like arrows piercing the heart. My mother told me
in the space of my life time

She had squashed my great-grandfather’s coronation
her father’s festivities, Several farmsteads
And hope crystallised by ritual into two
two bedroom flats between Lagos and London
South of the river. This caused Ghosts
To press against our window panes
To beckoning me beyond the balcony
Only to fall silent when I reached the edge. Anyhow

The legacies and genealogies are now written.
No more fear of forgetting them. No more need
Of remembering them. Empire becomes hamlet
becomes highway, becomes hallway. This morphing landscape
Spans Benin, Rome, Mali, Samaria, all.

The sun is rising above our garden. Let us have breakfast.
After that we will take a walk. Then we will work. Then
we will help each other. After that we will ease ourselves. Then
we will sing and dance and worship. We will laugh and chat. Then sleep.
After that, then...

By ‘Funmi Adewole Kruczkowska

© Funmi Adewole Kruczkowska. All rights reserved.