Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Window

After Wallace Stevens’ “Thirteen Ways of Looking At A Blackbird”

Anointing Obuh

I
This is the only window in this house

II
Inebriation can multiply a hand 
into a hundred hands feeling up your dress,
one window into three.

III
Every window has a portal 
for dirt and grime to pass through,
Mine has a large hole where colorful birds breathe their last. 

IV
A window and a door are one,
A door could be a window when shrunk
a window is a door.

V
I do not go through this window head first,
The only beauty in suicide is 
getting to see yourself drown. 

VI
The moon looks like a giant disc 
through the panes.
My mother once called it a ball of light,
Shadow creator, sponge.

VII
Can a window protect a woman's
[perceived] dignity 
without becoming a barricade?

VIII
The absence of a window is a void.
The absence of a void is a wall.
Where there is no wall, there is the exposed 
bleakness of the outside world. 

IX
Oh, that I should worship the effervescent beauty 
of this window.
It's golden plated eyes,
The straight proud back of its youth.

X
The window is a reflector of light, like God,
Like those angels that didn't fall. 

XI
My dreams are so window
-less. The nightmares fly in like crows.
The window absorbs my screams, gently. 

XII
The sun is rising.
The window must be smiling.

XIII
It was night all day long.
It was raining and it was going to sun.
The window took it all
Before our eyes. 

Anointing Obuh is a writer, singer and photographer. She is 20.35 Africa's New Poet for the month January 2021. A Best of the Net nominee, her works are forthcoming and have been featured in Blue Marble Review, Rattle, Mineral Lit Mag, Honey and Lime Lit, Barren Magazine and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the NF2W9 2020 poetry scholarship and is currently studying English Language and Literature in the University of Benin, Nigeria. She says hello.