Iheoma Uzomba

To Girlhood & the Texture of Static

Time would stretch towards us
to the many times we've let tap-water
cruise through our open mouths
distended by the weight of thirst,
the languid aura of staleness.
But even this does not let us
sore this girlhood custom
of trading liquid
one mouth to the other,
until our mothers are screaming
from halved windows:
You don't drink that way!
There's no perfect way to sin
than becoming other.
So tonight, we do not count the stars
and thumb our names into the sand
while this crust of darkness encircles us.
We have grown now
and this is what time brings:
unscrewing your favorite cocktail in the dark
with music high over the sideboard
and our lovers' lips clung to ours
bodies upturned, sleek and wet.
Each breath exploding, a short victory earned
to how long we may share this freedom.

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Iheoma Uzomba is currently a student of English and Literary Studies at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her works feature in Kissing Dynamite, The Rising Phoenix Review, Fact-Simile Editions, Dreich Magazine, The Muse (a creative and critical print journal) and elsewhere. She considers music and writing two beautiful artforms to best express herself.