HEY YOU BOY, YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL!
sing & let the air hug the wave of your voice, let its willowing
wings decorate the space with the shape of your lips that you’re
too pretty to be broken. i understand you do not want to walk out
of the golden castles in your dreams into the roaring streets that
swear to swallow you whole. but also get it right that no matter
how thick the fucking night is, the bats will never miss their colony.
i am a boy too, though i may not want a boy with sweet soprano
lead my orchestra, but i know how a body devoid
of colours grows into dried leaves, shivering in perpetual fear of
being squeezed & pulverised any moment soon. yet if you want
holy angels to costume your heart into canvas of dawn roses: do
not only learn how to dance in the rain; teach yourself how to
make hot moves through sulphur fuelled furnace, be fond of
breathing smoke, taste the burning coal to know which of its sides
to kiss. see, pretty boy, walls bump even into the ways of shadow,
knowing fully well that it will sling over. it’s just another cloud in
the sky; some people are hell-bent on bending others into dark
rooms with pirouetting storm that flare
up at the sight of little light. yet do not try to take leaves flailing in
the breeze as storm, and therefore shut your door from daylight or
else your body will dissolve its colours in the darkness. that is why
you do not have to, every time your boat is swamped by the waves,
call on sleeping Jesus to rebuke the warring winds; you have to
learn the game of swimming, so that your soul can float upon the
storming sea. Hey you boy, wipe your tears & smile; you’re too
beautiful to be broken.
SOM OLUWATOBI AUGUST ADEDAYO is currently studying English Language at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, where, through the lens of his notepad, he loves to see the flowers bloom. He tweets @SomAugust and poses on IG as som__august.