Maryam Aliko Mohammed
Fated

Come to me as you are
Unable to do otherwise
Have me as I am
Being you cannot bear differently
There will be no clothes between us.

my God

I dance in and out of unbelief
A foot in front leaves the other behind
The god they grew me up on does not exist
My little self calls out, I know no one is coming,
I undertake to make a new one
While it rationalizes why god is remiss.

Conjure

Did I conjure you up?
I must have.
It may have been in my lucid dream
It may have been one of those times I found myself at Yemoja's altar
I had been to too many priestesses, goddesses, and ancients
Looking for you.
I paid with an occult coin.
Who would have thought the beggar I was to give a coin gave me one of his, and tell me it would buy what I wanted the most.
Who would have guessed that in that dream I would place it in her open palms when she demanded without asking.
Who would have foreseen that the coin would grow incandescent in her palm, then move towards me and enter my heart.
I woke up from that dream with my heart reaching to feel you along the length of me
cuddled in your arms
my head on your chest
I turn slightly to kiss your heart
I feel a strange warmth on my lips and a brightness behind my lids,
I open my eyes
The incandescent occult coin is your heart.

_ _

Maryam Aliko Mohammed's writing is insomnia-induced when the voices in her head reward her with moments of profound insight she hardly remembers in the morning. She holds that life comes down to who you love and who loves you back, and her conviction that she is at the centre of defining these. She can be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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