The Bride Who Left The House
By Zainab Kuyizhi
(for Aunty Fati)
Wednesday, 9th of March 2022
It’s March
& I am drinking warm milk of blended & boiled mixture of soybeans. & My mother in the kitchen, pressing its resulting curds into solid white blocks. I hear my sister in the other room scream into the phone, “Which Aunty Fati?”
“Aunty Fati, Aunty Fati?!”
inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un
inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un
inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un
I watched
As she was carried up on the shoulders of men most dear to her—even her groom, washed & shrouded in perfumed fresh snow white. & her body to be given to the ground. Men shaking their heads in disbelief & women crying & mouthing their silent farewells, some telling about their last encounters. i saw her in the market just last month. i have not seen her since the wedding. she was my kind neighbor. we grew up together. her baby bump was protruding when i last saw her. did the baby make it? sorrows and prayers. such a nice lady. and she was fine just days before o. we shared our last laugh that evening; who could’ve thought?
It’s Maghrib
Just around the same time we’d brought her here—her new home. Friends & relatives in matching Ankara fits, wearing warm smiles.
Our bride, cloaked in gold embroidered Alkyabba. The bright buuuupuu buuuupuu of kàkàki played in royal ensembles for hours on end
& the way she knelt before her father, cried
& cried
& cried
—it was almost as if she knew.
Writer’s Biography
Zainab Kuyizhi is a Nigerian poet and a spoken word artist. Her work explores the dynamics of life and its entirety, especially love, pain, and anger, and it’s appeared in OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review, Tilted House Review, The Ayanfe Magazine, The Tower Magazine, and elsewhere. Zainab is also a psychotherapist and mental health advocate interested in influencing personal development and growth. She founded a mental health peer support group, Tea & Reflection. The community is working on reducing the stigma around mental illness in Nigeria through organized group therapy sessions for people suffering from contemporary mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorders), etc, over a cup of tea. She's on Twitter & Instagram @yar_kuyizhi.
