Relocation, 2023 – Igbayilola Williams, Courtesy the artist.

; / because the body does not listen / it ends. because the body
listens / it ends. again / my family is in my dream picking
apples in a cider orchard / my sister runs out of the dream /
my brother chases her

; / we bring nothing before everything / piece the wooden
horse & set the road on fire / sing as clouds grumble / scrub
our eyes clean of dreams / my father places his right hand on
my shoulder & / my mother waves at us

; / the truth is that i do not identify a journey until i’m stuck /
i’m singing wisps & strumming bees / i lead a flock of children
out of the priory & give them names / my brother calls my
name as i turn the boat into a bed / in the deep of sleep the
water wavers over the body / my father snores in a storm /
my mother slashes the paperwall with a sledgehammer / am
i dreaming of ways to bury the flocks / dreaming of ways to
bury my friends / my sister sings from inside the church & its
pews hum along / there is no saving for a fish spat out of water
/ in the drowning i ask air what it takes to be everywhere /
enquire of the heaviness of wreckage / my mother waves again
/ my brother comes out of our old house with a chicken /
thunder slices its throat & we are in a feast / there is laughter
bliss & music syncing with the burns in my chest / i vomit
wool / vomit my grandmother’s pendant / vomit the promise
/ to keep my friend alive / he calls my name & i answer / he
calls again as the door leading out of the city opens / he calls
again

; / in the dark / bruised bones apologize to flesh / i turn the
boat toward an uncertain place / the silt river wets my face &
my mouth bitters / a star trips & shuts the door / my window
of escape is a nestling / i call a dove out of my hands / twist
the neck / perform my ablution / the ground hawks the dove’s
blood back into my hands / i know the graves i have made
myself are why my body is never at rest / tínko tìnko tìnkoko
tìnko—the flock of children sizzles a kind of prayer / i pace
toward the small trance of light / a voice the size of god
turns me back / i sit waiting for a shadow to form / i form a
performance of waiting

Adedayo Agarau
Adedayo Agarau is the author of The Years of Blood, winner of the Poetic Justice Institute Editor’s Prize for BIPOC Writers (Fordham University Press, Fall 2025). He is a Wallace Stegner Fellow ‘25, a Cave Canem Fellow and a 2024 Ruth Lilly-Rosenberg Fellowship finalist. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Agbowó Magazine: A Journal of African Literature and Art and a Poetry Reviews Editor for The Rumpus. He is the author of the chapbooks “Origin of Name” (African Poetry Book Fund, 2020) and “The Arrival of Rain” (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, 2020).

Igbayilola Williams
Igbayilola Williams is a Nigerian artist influenced by African philosophy as reflected in his use of oil and acrylic to create textured effects on his paintings. His style encompasses elements of Expressionism, Postmodernism, Fauvism and figurative abstract. Igbayilola studied Fine and Applied Arts at Ladoke Akintola University Ogbomoso, Nigeria; and had his debut solo exhibition at AVPAI Art Gallery in Iragbiji. He worked under the tutelage of Muraina Oyelami, a major artist of the Osogbo School.