The Glowing Sun of the North

Shafaatu Mohammed

I Could look for you, beloved, in the thousand ways and places I could and I choose here I choose to draw maps from footprints on the silted body of sand AtKofar Wambai right down to the ancient city of Kajuru I choose to tear apart the notes of the algaitas To see if they too can speak your galore of languages And perhaps I learn that the city of the caliphate Is where you and the knowledge of you cascades From the brochure of memory and the tip of tongues Like ink does on a muhajir’s board Beloved, I choose to look for you here I choose to make out a route from the patterns of atamfas And to swim in oceans of ink at the belly of Kofar Mata To taste the remnants of the spice of your affections In kilishi and gurasa To drag out a mosaic of your identity From miyan kubewa and kuka To travel in the silhouette of turaren wuta To the dunes of Maiduguri To adorn myself in Lafaya and jewels And wait for the sounds of your horses at the durbar I choose to look for you here At the centre of hospitality At the space between my heart and senses I choose to look for you at home.

About Shafaatu Mohammed

is a Nigerian teen writer , poet , spoken word artiste , advocate, reviewer and currently a second year Physiotherapy student at the Federal University of Health Sciences Azare and a member of Hilltop creative arts foundation . Born in Nasarawa and raised between Nasarawa and Kaduna , . She is the winner of the 2022 Professor Andrew Nok poetry prize , the recipients the 2022 and 2024 poet of the year and writer of the year award at The Kaduna branch of hilltop creative arts foundation, she has been published in the Teenlit magazine , the Enghausa kwaraptipn anthology , the dreamy world anthology , The upwrite magazine , Yasmin El-Rufai foundation’s 2022 bloom anthology and elsewhere.