ISSUE 7 | JULY 2023 | TRANSITION ISSUE
I.
Two years & I’m still
in transit between jobs.
Between new stripes
& withheld entitlements
Two years & regret isn’t
even a place of solace.
I float between dreamy
skies & furious seas,
a price for ego wars—
kola at crossroads of loyalty
—mole of god,
devil’s apprentice.
II.
Hope is a vector
in time’s bloodstreams
No surgery,
no sorcery,
no healing
for a lean pocket
III.
They say I’m a wall but
you see the other side
—I’m beaten, bullet-ridden.
A man on the ground,
hurtling from his wounds,
knows the weight of a fly.
But you say it is a phase,
that joy is not a destination
—it is a perpetual journey!
Jide Badmus
Jide Badmus is an engineer, a poet inspired by beauty and destruction; he believes that things in ruins were once beautiful.
He is the author of four books including Obaluaye (FlowerSong Press, 2022) and What Do I Call My Love for Your Body (Roaring Lion Newcastle, 2022). He was nominated for Pushcart Prize in 2021.
Badmus has curated and edited several anthologies, and his poems have appeared in Disquiet Arts, The Shore, Kreative Diadem, Jalada Africa, Sub-Saharan and elsewhere.
He is founder of INKspiredNG, Poetry Editor for Con-scio Magazine, a mentor in the SprinNG Fellowship, and sits on the board of advisors for Libretto Magazine.
Jide writes from Lagos, Nigeria. He tweets @bardmus
Photo by Karim MANJRA on Unsplash