Covenant/tend yourself

by ITOHAN OMOLERE OSAIGBOVO
in Spring 2022

Ani Lacy, Paradise: And I Fled Them In My Sleep, 2022

Covenant

I              loved                      you 

        before 

              I knew 

                how           much             it 

would                        cost                                 

                      me.

now          knowing, 

     I would 

love 

you 

                   again. 

---

tend yourself

you start by watching your flesh
respond

nude tender pink meat
protests exposure
bleeds.

tend to yourself at pink.

each day brings a thin wind
brings
new skin         

time’s apology for your troubles.

live life like the white won’t
wound you
again.

take their name from your tongue
throat
trust.

forget how the knife tasted.
forget pulling it from the mouth
of your back.

grey will shelter your pink.
you will brown.

brown Black.     

the scab will fall first
bring closure
aid
comfort.

when you surface pink
tend your self     

tend yourself brown.

---

Itohan Osaigbovo is a writer, editor, cultural worker, and educator. Her poetry navigates the intersections of radical Black faith, human dignity, African identity, and the interpersonal. Itohan holds B.A.s in English Literature and Administration of Justice from Howard University, and an MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. Itohan is based in Baltimore. She is the founder of Free All Of Us, a liberation-focused creative writing studio.