Reading an Aubade to Your Absence

Abstract

Reading an Aubade to Your Absence Henneh Kyereh Kwaku (bio) after “A Walk through Intimacy,” by Theresah AnkomahUnder the auspices of the wind, light, revealed.In the dark places of the world—the cranium of an animal Once loved, now grieved; the grave of a womanWho died too green to breastfeed a baby— The bees make a home. When the curtains swirl to the wind,A humerus arises in the alchemy of blood. Ananse—Kwaku, when you wove capillaries through this bodyWas it a blueprint for a dating app or were you making quilts For the cold? If you made a home with a weaver bird,It could hold water—but the strength of a home is in its porosity. Under the auspices of the wind—Is the light concealed? Where you once lay, now a dark place—I make a home. Click for larger view View full resolution GIRMA BERTA (ETHIOPIA), MOVING SHADOWS XI (2016), DIGITAL ARCHIVAL PRINT, 40 X 40 CM / COURTESY OF ADDIS FINE ART [End Page 42] Henneh Kyereh Kwaku Henneh Kyereh Kwaku (@kwaku_ kyereh) is the author of Revolution of the Scavengers, selected for the APBF New-Generation African Poets Chapbook Series. He’s an editor and podcast host, and his poems and hybrids have appeared in numerous journals. From Gonasua in the Bono region of Ghana, he is currently pursuing an MPhil in health education at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Copyright © 2022 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma