1.

Jos reminds me of a town I’m yet to visit;

A town I see only in movies and  pictures.

In Jos, I am a fish in a refrigerator praying to survive one more night.

This town has a way of neutralizing heat so you don’t feel it,

It leaves you singing praises for each wake of the sun

Like a goddess during a festival.

2.

Jos comes to me at nights humming songs of loneliness

as my body receives lashes from cold wipes

reminding me of a lover I’m separated from by distance.

In Jos, my body sings melodies of sweet sensations from a lover’s touch,

reminding me of my womanhood and the need for a man;

I want to be kissed,

Caresed,

And sleep in a masculine embrace.

3

The rocks are talking to me,

But the language of the rocks I do not know,

I only see it through the tears it cries in form of water.

I want to go to the mountains,

To sit on the rocks and marry my spirit with that of the rock goddess

as the wind carries my voice like ancient songs of history reminding me of

stories I’ve been told.

4

The inhabitants of Jos are tied to each other by a single language;

The Hausa Language.

I wish to communicate in this language and try different delicacies

While history unfolds itself from aged lips embracing my eardrums

Like a lonely woman to her pillow in a harmattan night.