Studio Portrait, Accra, 1974

20 September 2026

In the photograph my mother is nineteenand has not met the country I was born in.

The backdrop is a painted balconythat opens onto a painted sea.Neither of them is anywhere.That is what a studio is for: to lend youa window you can stand in for one shilling.

She has done her hair the way the magazine said.She is not smiling, because smiling was notwhat you did with a whole shilling.

I have looked at this so long I have begunto mistake it for a memory. It is not.It is a thing I inherited, which is different —a window she stood in, on the way to a seathat was painted, in a country I only visit,holding still for the length of one breathso that I would have her face to keep.

About the ekphrasticA poem written in response to another work of art, such as a painting.

An ekphrastic poem looks at a work of art and answers it. That might be a painting, a photograph or a sculpture. It can describe what is there, speak to it, or wander off into what it stirs.

Listen for Whether the poem describes the artwork, speaks to it, or drifts toward something it stirred.

4 poems in this form →

Nadia Osei

@nadia

Two languages, one notebook. Trusts the shorter poem.

11 poems · 9 readings received · 11 written · 2 followers

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Readings (1)

Juniper Cole20 September 2026

"Smiling was not what you did with a whole shilling" reframes the entire photograph in one line, and then the poem is honest enough to say it has been misfiling the image as memory. The one place I'd argue: "which is different" tells me there's a distinction coming before you've shown it. The lines after it do show it, beautifully. I think you can cut the signpost and trust the window, the sea and the breath to carry it.

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More by Nadia Osei

08Small Inheritance“Her keys still turn the lock, though she does not.”“Her keys still turn the lock, though she does not.”Small InheritanceQuick read 09Two Words for Rain“My mother's language has two words for rain —”“My mother's language has two words for rain —”Two Words for Rain2 readings 10What My Mother Prayed in the Other Language“She prayed in the language I was taught to lose,”“She prayed in the language I was taught to lose,”What My Mother Prayed in the Other Language

All 11 poems →

Alongside this one

Matched by shared theme or form. Where two match equally, the one still waiting for a first reading comes first.

What the Photograph Won't SayMarisol Vega“In it my grandmother is not yet tired.”Memory · Ekphrastic What Wyeth Didn't CaptionDeclan Ashworth“They call it longing, the way she's turned”Identity · Ekphrastic Le conchiglieLente Scura“Le conchiglie”Identity · Memory