v.
the bullet wound on the wall clock
refuses to heal. here, life is in a loop.
someone is always dying.
iv.
& my brother is dead. dead.
there’s no euphemism for that. grief is not something
one can ferry with a paper boat for too long. & there’s
always an aperture in every prayer my mouth chants
towards heaven…
iii.
at 11 / father returns home soulless / he returns as a jacket
/ a ripped jeans / & a bottle of ogogoro // mother becomes
the body /b/ in tomb / silent / so silent she can’t say āmin
to my prayer / asking God to revert everything /everything
He has plucked from us // there is enough rafflesia keithii
growing in our floral garden / as if to tell us that no more
daises no more roses no more lilies no more orchids no
more living beings just corpses corpses corpses corpses!
ii.
the bullet wound on the wall clock never heals
there’s a boy 2 minutes away from drowning
& a poem won’t save him perhaps a poem
is just another paper boat
sailing away to
nowhere
i.
i rip out all the pictures in the photo album
& make a papier-mâché boat
the colour of whisked rainbow.
Sodiq Oyekanmi
Sodiq Oyekanmi is a Nigerian poet, playwright and thespian; a student of the University of Ibadan, where he currently studies Theatre Arts. He enjoys writing poetry as he sees this as a therapeutic creative outlet. His works explore marital dysfunction, grief, depression, finding oneself, love and heart-quakes. He co-judged the Akuko Magazine’s Inaugural Literary Competition for African Writers [Poetry Category] with Rosed Serrano. His works have appeared / forthcoming in Pigeonholes, The Shallow Tales Review, African Writer Magazine, Brittle Paper, Black Youth Magazine, Iman Collective, The Drinking Gourd, Trampset, Rigorous Magazine, Kalahari Review, Echelon Review, Praxis Magazine and BANSI: The Anthology of Boys Men & Others III. He is currently working on his first poetry chapbook. A hopeless romantic who tweets @sodiqoyekan.
Photo by Chris Barbalis on Unsplash