Easter Bouquet 2025: Becoming, by Sarah Adeyemo

Sarah Adeyemo (Swan IX) is a Nigerian poet, writer, spoken word artiste, and communication expert. The author of the poetry collection The Shape of Silence, she draws inspiration from solitude and experiences.  Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in The Muse Journal, The Weganda Review, Everscribe Magazine, The Shallow Tales Review, Northern Writers Forum Journal, Eboquills, Rinna Lit. Anthologies, and elsewhere.

Becoming

I am a half-begotten tree

                       of dreams and realities.

Woken by quest of growth,

                     I dangle like a pendulum.

Tomorrow, I may bear fruit or not,

               depending on my attachment

to my root, or how fast my growth

           aches are buried like fallen seeds.

Tonight, the fall of rain sounds 

              like crowds of children screeching.

Is this not how the heavens sing odes

              to the land for nursing its tenants, 

despite its dryness? I gathered the years

                      I've witnessed into a thick cloud. 

When I stand beneath it, I am as black as void.

                           And this is how I trace myself into 

a body I have never worn.

                         Into realities I may not grow.