Calling God’s Mobile Phone-
Today, I boil my adhan in a kettle
And the steams whisper supplications
Effervescing through the ladder of pestle-straight
Prayers into the ethereal coliseum.
To elicit an answer, I wash myself
in an ablution from every sinful act—crawling
down into the crippled squat of an orison,
rosary beads gliding on the pads of my
fingers, my mouth chorale-ing a repentance,
a plea for grace, for “Astagafir’ Allahil azeem”.
I dial God’s 11 digits, “Al-la-hu~Ak-bar,” with
the telephone of my takbir, and he responds
in light-startling velocity. Heralding our dialogue
with a canticle of psalms, I soothe my God
with the cold, gliding caresses of my lips.
and as happy as a jaybird, He sends down
blessings through my soul.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Abubakar Auwal, a talented young artist hailing from Minna, Niger State, Nigeria, wears many creative hats. He is a bilingual teen poet, playwright, essayist, movie actor, graphics designer, storyteller, and spoken word artist. Abubakar is a proud member of The Poetic Collective (TPC VIII) and one of the founding members of Nigerlite Spoken Word Artists (NiSWA_1).
His creative works have found homes in various publications, including Teen Lit Journal, Synchronized Chaos magazine, Hello Poetry, LILAC Journal, Poetry.com, Words Rhymes & Rhythm, Artnews.com.ng, Al-Fijir MSSN magazine, New Voices Magazine, California Poppy Times, IJAEM journal, Flower Song Press, and Boundless 2023: the anthology of the Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival, among others.
Abubakar serves as the Editor in Chief at New Voices Magazine, a junior editor at Poetry.com, and takes pride in being a member of the Hill-Top Creative Art Foundation. Notably, he clinched victory in the Splendor of Dawn poetry and short story competition (February–April edition, 2023) and secured a finalist spot in the NSYTH Poetry and Spoken Word Recitation.
Hauwa Suleiman Achiba