Ismail Yusuf Olumoh

the arithmetic of the people tested by the man of their ton(gu)e

after Zaynab Bobi “set operation of a country in the belly of water”

PUBLISHED IN FOLIO 2025: VOL. 40.

WINNER OF THE 2025 FOLIO POETRY PRIZE

question:
a country, a constellation of Narcissus, is led by leaders stifling
its people through empty bellies, destitution, captivity, carnage,
& anguish. what will be the gain of the people after entrusting
them with power, only to annihilate their spirits? considering:

C = {hunger, hardship, kidnapping, killing, tribalism, religious, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo,
Government, Rich, Poor}
KP = {Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo}
TP = {Rich, Poor}
A= {hunger, hardship, kidnapping, killing, tribalism, religious}

a. what makes a body quiet if C - (A ∪ (KP ∩ TP)) =?

b. If P = {peaceful protest, voices heard, government listens} and V = {violence, looting,
destruction}, what is the value of P ∩ V when the government refuses to acknowledge the people's cries, represented by C - (A ∪ (KP ∩ TP)) = {Government}?

c. Given that D = {desperation, hunger, hardship} and G = {government's indifference,
deafness}, what is the result of D ∪ G when the people's protests are met with indifference, symbolized by the equation C - (A ∪ (KP ∩ TP)) = {Government}, and how does this impact the nation's stability?

answers:

a. C - (A ∪ (KP ∩ TP)) = ?
Now, if we remove the elements of A ∪ (KP ∩ TP) from set C, we get:
C - (A ∪ (KP ∩ TP)) = {Government}

interpretation:
no one taught the bodies the language of silence, but the man of your tongue,
pussyfooting everything out of your bodies. firstly, he chastised your bellies two,
four years, starvation, then seize your gullet, until nothing else is left for you
if not a consolation. meaning: even your own teeth can bite your tongue.
secondly, he morphed into a geometrid, gnawed your spirit like cereals until you
wilted. & when all is stripped away, what remains is the government, untouched.

b. P ∩ V
P = {peaceful protest, voices heard, government listens}
V = {violence, looting, destruction}
P ∩ V = ∅

interpretation:
the scent of burning hope, in a country, voices rise like smoke thickening
with the smell of decay. sometimes, it dissolves into the babel of breaking
glass. & when peace & patience are entombed in the belly of the land,
like a peaceful protest hanging in the teeth of the air, torrents slip them
away. so, the ink of placards runs red, & the streets, once a river of hope,
give birth to a bastard child. but something in between, a hybrid born
of neglect. the people, their voices unheard, find their words shape-shift
into stones, their pleas into fire, mingling with the crack of glass.

c. Given that D = {desperation, hunger, hardship}
G = {government's indifference, deafness}
D ∪ G = {desperation, hunger, hardship, government’s indifference, deafness}

interpretation:
when despondence, the starved-hope, slithers like a twilight, outstretching
athwart every façade, street, & into the concave of the people's hearts, the man
of your tongue, an obelisk, ramrod, a fortress built of torpor. here, emptiness
etches paths through people's guts, twists their hearts, turns their voices into relics
lost in the wind, & hardships writes its name on the bones of children, & in this
union, the people’s pleas sink into the earth like Pomegranate never to sprout.
what is left is the howl of the storm, the union of neglect, a fire that consumes
all it touches, & hope buried under the weight of a nation’s apathy.

Ismail Yusuf Olumoh, SWAN VII, is a writer, teacher, and spoken word artist pursuing a DVM at the University of Maiduguri. His works appear and are forthcoming in South Carolina Review, Palette Poetry, Brittle Paper, Eunoia Review, Rowayat, Eboquills, Strange Horizons, and others. He writes from Ilorin, Kwara State. You can find him on X @icreatives0.