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To the Girl Who Found a Child Inside Her Body.
Fatihah Quadri
That night, your mother was lemon water, sour-voiced, she sat on the floor to talk about you with other women. Mama Jide sighed heavily and lost her breath. Mama Shade listened in soreness, her hand over her head. Mama Bayo hit her shadow over the wall in shock. Aunty Sola said that you couldn’t find your blood. They said that a man had broken into your body. We pressed our ears against the walls, our feet shaking upon the earth’s silence.
Fatihah Quadri Eniola is a Nigerian page and performance poet who uses poetry as a tool for advocacy. She is a strong advocate for gender equality, human rights, and community issues. Fatihah is the winner of the inaugural Pawner's Paper Performance Poetry Prize for Peace and the 2025 Centre for Black Art and African civilization Poetry Prize, among other accolades. Her works have been published in Torch Literary Arts, The West Trade Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, and more. She has a background in Law from the University of Ibadan. She tweets @fatihahquadri