Victoria Adukwei Bulley
(1991- )
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Poet, writer, and artist Victoria Adukwei Bulley is an alumna of the Barbican Young Poets. Her writing appears in The Poetry Review, the London Review of Books, the Chicago Review, and is featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour. In 2018, she received the Society of Authors Eric Gregory Award for promising UK poets under 30. Bulley is also the director of MOTHER TONGUES, an intergenerational poetry, film, and translation project focusing on the indigenous language heritages of Black poets. Her debut pamphlet, Girl B, was published in the 2017 New Generation African Poets series.
Learn more about her work through her blog.
Ode
18 June 2020
oh my diablo, diablo pequeno, oh night singer, oh most true & high falsetto, oh starving four-winged mother, oh lone she wolf, oh once nymph, oh primordial stagnation, oh explorador, oh lover of house reds, oh witching hour jinn, oh erratic, oh evasive, oh god no & now unmistakeable, oh warm & international, oh unlikely but not impossible death deliveroo, oh most consistent, oh highly dependent, oh addict, oh seeker of beautiful veins, oh collector of DNA, oh genome stealer, oh cartographer of blood, oh rogue scientist, oh government pawn, oh infiltrator, oh infidel, oh drone, oh promised one, oh midnight kiss, oh lovebite perfectly circular & raised a little, oh long-nailed orgasmic itch, oh ooze, oh souvenir, oh scar, oh skin constellation, oh BioOil boomer, oh money maker, oh leg slapper, oh clap & check both hands, oh newspaper, oh towel, oh book or whatever’s closer, oh dream breaker, oh organic alarm, oh call to arms, oh supplicant, oh rogue, oh swift invasion, oh awful tenant, oh short-term lease, oh tiny white man with bugle to scale, oh poacher, oh crosshair, oh ear worm, oh fish hook tonight I am bait & I tried but will not win! oh coloniser, tonight I am the island you’ll name with your mouth as you must, as you must, make it quick & noiseless just take my shit & go