Why Should I Marry You

 

Agoro Ololade

I feel like a corpse.

Rotting and filthy,

My skin is flayed and broken

And my nails have fallen out.

My hair is tangled and damp

With the blood and sweat of our tussle

My neck is bruised in zigzag patterns

From all the strangling and bondage.

Where my nipple used to be, 

Is a mass of distorted flesh

Where you shoddily carved it out with a knife,

The day I tried to warn the neighbors about you.

My voice is the wail of a ghost:

Unearthly and dry

From the days I'd cried so hard 

In pain, begging for mercy from you.

My soles are naked and broken

From those times you'd forced me to walk

On broken bottle and nails

(Then there was the day of the hot plate).

My palms are scraped and raw

Evidence of the days you iron them 

Then whip them afterwards,

Leaving me unconscious with pain.

My eyes are red and swollen

Permanently leaking blood

And where my pretty lips used to be

Is unrecognisable flesh.

When you look at them, 

All you'd see is black and purple.

So tell me, Bankole

Posed as you are,

Laying at my feet

Your hands gripping my ankles

Why should I marry you?

 *Trinity*