A Funeral Hymn in Falsetto
‘Gbenga Adeoba
| poetry
On the night my grandfather rejected tea
and offered his last breath instead,
the earth shifted an inch.
And I listened out for a rustle of leaves
or a flash of thunder
amidst the wailers’ phonation.
At the funeral,
when the chorister sang
the paradise hymn in falsetto,
I imagined a brood of angels
heralding the arrival of my grandfather
who was migrating in a boat of glass.
It is a decade now,
and sighs have replaced hymns
in the order of memories.
The elegies too return to me
the way an empty alley
returns our gift of words in multiples.
Gbenga Adeoba’s poems have appeared/are forthcoming in Notre Dame Review, Hotel Amerika, Harpur Palate, and elsewhere. He’s received recognition and support from Callaloo and Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. He lives in Ilorin, Nigeria.