For Poetry Day Ireland 2025, twelve poems have been selected following a national call out to respond to this year's theme, May Day - read Thank You by Othuke Umukoro below.
Thank You
Then it is May.
Then we are standing in the rain —
mother & son. Our sacks of cassava tall
& heavy by the roadside.
It is the year gall midges, mealybugs & green
mites show her farm mercy. It is the year
the kids wouldn't stop
making jokes about my threadbare school
uniform. The year before, wasn't akara & bowls
of watery akamu all we could afford for Christmas?
& wasn’t that offering, however hollowed, a miracle
performed by the cracked hands of this woman
who rose before everyone even in harmattan mornings
in our small house? Did we give praise,
& do I not give praise now to her, me wearing
the old raincoat while pellet
after pellet smacks her skin, waiting & praying
travellers from Warri or Ughelli stop
to buy our freshly peeled cassava?
Poetry Day Ireland 2025 will take place on Thursday, 1st May - find out more here.
