Two Poems by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie

Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie has two poems in Origins: ‘My Love for Him Ends the Occupation’ and ‘Final Quartet.’ Both are tremendous; both are going stay with me through the rest of the day and beyond.

‘My Love for Him Ends the Occupation’ is a title and a prayer and a promise. That love itself isn’t an expected thing. It’s inevitable as death / insistent mosquito / redwood roots, and I’m left with no lesser feeling than awe at the rest of this poem that stands in front of centuries of colonialism and states Black people know how to do more than die / our kisses stepped long and patient. Be with this poem, then consider how you can bring it closer to the present.

‘Final Quarter’ is grief spread in total—grief in scent, in touch, in temperature, in taste. That this is the “final” quartet implies there were others, that this elegy is part of a long conversation, a long love that can outlast even poetry.

Origins Journal