Tinnitus
Gabriel Awuah Mainoo
March 6, 2025
Jesus said to her; your
brother will rise again
—John 11;23
the only crankshaft i know is
faith. strung under the lip of my
earlobe. i say this to my lover
all the time. calls me unreasonable
all the time. i hear door-jaws i do
not open, close those i do not hear.
especially on tropical evenings
the tart taste of wind, its bite &
hot cough sprawling in my
cranium like the way a broken
bird’s tremolo fills the emptiness
of the grave with more death;
the impairment of immortality.
i’m turning, straining, stretching
this skin to listen to its other names.
the sidewalks of my body own
their gods. they speak to me in
many ways; thru SUV horns, the
odor of a dead cat rising out of
the sewer. as long as you pray,
they say; the ear hears itself. the
bad-mouth eats itself. the eye
shields itself against the immoral
reflex lurking behind the shadow
of a shoulder lifting the sabre.
i’m not sure i’ve been blessed.
to know more, they say; you must
swipe your fist into an old man’s
face, without the remorse that comes
with ageing, the curse under the feet of
thunder-stomps associated with
panic. you’ll understand the
interpretation of light & sound─ indigo
in your stomach. why your mother’s
child cries belly-full without intention.
the translation of avian-spirits
inert─ on his thin sigh. mouthing
is a shaman’s kind of prophecy. the
sacrifice of teeth meant to obey tongue.
this is the secret to tickle God
in the rib for another gift. penance is
our own way of blessing the ear’s lip.
GABRIEL AWUAH MAINOO is a Ghanaian creative practitioner. He has received fellowships from the Hong Kong Baptist University, Aarhus Literature Center in Denmark, the Library of Africa, and the African Diaspora, Wintertuin Curacao, and others. He is a grant recipient of the Danish Art Foundation through the South Gate Creative Writing School. Mainoo is the author of “Lyrical Textiles’’ (Illuminated Press, U.S.), ‘‘We are Moulting Birds’’ (Light Factory Publication, Canada), and a co-author of "Hvor End Havet Skyller Dig Op" (Forlaget Silkerfyret, Denmark). His awards include the Africa Haiku Prize, the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora chapbook prize, the Singapore Poetry Prize, the 6th Ghana Association of Writers Literary Awards, the Samira Bawumia Literature Prize, the 1st Wanjohi Prize for African Poetry, and others. He edits poetry for The Journal of African Youth Literature. His craft can be found in The London Reader, The New Orleans Review, Fiyah Magazine, The Michigan Quarterly Review, Prairie Fire, Wales Haiku Journal, The Woodward Review and others. Mainoo was a headline poet at the Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival in England (2024) under the auspices of Bath Spa University, Ashesi University and the Arts Council of England.