Her heart was heavy because it was open, and so things filled it, and so things rushed out of it, but still the heart kept beating, tough and frighteningly powerful and meaning to shrug off the rest of her and continue on its own.
Helen OyeyemiThis was a little house, with a ceiling that kept getting higher and higher, a hot place with no windows. This was anger.
Helen OyeyemiThe first coffee of the morning is never, ever, ready quickly enough. You die before itโs ready and then your ghost pours the resurrection potion out of the moka pot.
Helen OyeyemiSo many times I've encountered people who are just kind of like, 'Yeah, Nigeria,' and, you know, thump their chest and seem very sure of, like, being Nigerian. And I'm just kind of, like, I wish I could be that sure.
Helen OyeyemiLike every girl, I only need to look up and a little to the right of me to see the hysteria that belongs to me, the one that hangs om a hook like an empty jacket and flutters with disappointment that I cannot wear her all the time. I call her my hysteric, and this personal hysteric of mine is designer made (though I'm not sure who made her), flattering and comfortable, attractive even, if you're around people who like that sort of thing. She is not anyone, my hysteric; she is blank, electricity dancing around a filament, singing to kill.
Helen Oyeyemi