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Mar 22, 2026
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Literary journal of the Northern Writers Forum.
© 2026 NWF Journal · Northern Writers Forum
Literary journal of the Northern Writers Forum.
In Abba’s dusk, darkness folds me in,
like a soft mantle of bare solitude.
The near-vacuous room exhales slow breath,
my bed welcomes the still air—
the silent drum waits.
Morning beam crouches low,
quickening dew-drips from the rooftop,
stillness echoes passing time.
The silent drum speaks,
not in sound, but in presence—
as an ancient call woven with suspense.
My mind unfurls wide,
like a sail catching the threads of sacred wind,
from the timeless alcove of Abba ancestral solitude.
From this unruffled space,
I wait like Okwara-Eleke River in harmattan longing for rains,
from realms born of silence.
Grandfather’s soursop leaves do not swirl.
Even the breeze sits with me,
holding back its song.
Each line I compose
trembles like a goat-hide skin,
tight with meanings, watched by quiet trees nearby.
O Silent drum, my muse,
your hush becomes harmony—
words without voices; you echo, I write.
No foot stirs the dust in Lolu-Eke’s stead,
yet rhythms rise from the hearth,
echoing through my waiting hands.
Ashes and embers speak.
The drum vibrates amidst soft clicks in the fire pit,
I write in their tongue.
The tasty early-morning udara fruits lie untouched.
I sip from solitude—sweet with silence,
art quenches its thirst first.
The Abba war drum does not beg.
It teaches me how to hear and decipher—
the beat beneath its breath.
Each word builds a home,
framed by quiet and thick silence—
I live in that sound.
O silent drum, you are the echo of my truth!
In your hush, I find my voice.
Clara Ijeoma Osuji currently teaches at Augustine University, Lagos State, Nigeria. She holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the University of Lagos, where she taught English for three academic sessions. Her area of research is in the burgeoning field of Gender Studies. She specialises in the critical study of the representations of gender with a special interest on Men and Fatherhood. She has published poetry and other scholarly Publications on men and masculinities. She is a postdoctoral Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies/African Humanities Program. Her ongoing scholarly projects focus on constructions of Male Motherhood in African fiction.
