May 25, 2025

by SHITTA FARUQ ADÉMÓLA

Silent Noise

For Vera, Barakat, and other victims of rape

“The past fortnight has been filled with sad stories of young girls and women being assaulted and raped across Nigeria. These include Vera Omozuwa in Edo State and Barakat Bello in Oyo State, both of whom died from the assault.” — Premium Times

When the heart is stabbed, it loses the courage to breathe.

I find light, but it is night here. The moon and the stars are confined

By nature, such miracles no longer happen.

In silence, do not undermine the power of the wind— it takes you on

A journey your body could not question. What remains? Everything is myopic.

First, it was a girl beside my house; then another news came,

Of a girl honing her innocence. What is left?

How often will the mouth laugh when the teeth keep grinding places that hurt?

It’s saddening that hands no longer fold cardboards, but girls —

Into pain, into everlasting torture.

Legs do not march again for victory. Instead,

They walk into girls and defile their innocence.

I am still recounting how many girls the earth has eaten up,

Still recounting bodies the earth has buried— the screams,

The noise that poured from the mouths of girls.

Ojú ogún le. This is the battle they fought without artillery.

I wonder how it feels when the body goes to war unarmed.

Na so e be. No hope for survival.

The body of a girl becomes a football.

First, it is kicked; the other, thrown; and then, caught up

In the net of torment.

What remains when the pride of a woman is nurtured by her pains?

I am a savior, strong enough to light the darkness lurking in this poem.

I beseech wonders and miracles.

This is what happens when your tongue stretches

Out to fathom the impossible.

I cry for justice, for mercy. I cry for revival.