“The Origin of Speech” by Buike Onah

Humans are born with noise
and sound
but do not have words

that which clings to the throats
of others
who look on and welcome us:
“Thank God.”
“Congratulations.”
“Nwa, welcome.”

We heard it all
but can only reply ah ah
and wait till
ah ah ah becomes maa ma maa
and our first word
was maama
though the noise continued

till maama turns to mama
accommodated papa
and names
and objects flowed in

and now the noise of birth
becomes the words of being
and when we sleep,
a tome of language
lies buried
with us
in the tomb.
 

Buike Onah is a student of University of Ibadan.He writes whatever he finds fun in and his poetry, prose and non fiction works have been published in different online journals