from the very first breath,
life begins to chisel us, and carves us
into the bodies we become at the last draw.
when we were kids, we crafted gods
out of all the things our hands could find,
beating them to our will
as they shaped us in theirs
we knew all the moves and danced
in adulation, learning quickly,
the many ways
to worship our own creation
but as a boy, well versed in the
language of apprehension, I struggled with
the constant fear of not becoming.
heart in constant negotiation with head,
I studied Icarus to draw inference
from the great fall. an ode to hubris.
as we grew older, we traded old gods
for the new, more deftly crafted.
time exhumed the artist buried deep inside us.
with the slow passage of time,
we have found rhythm in deep breaths-
long drawn, the soft serenade in solitude.
the cocoon only yields when you muster
the will to break it apart.
I learned of beauty from the struggle,
and the miracle of metamorphosis
in midmorning conversations with a butterfly.
a phoenix rises from the ashes; such is the theory of struggle.
Efe Ogufere
He is a poet working in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. A few of his poems been featured on journals and magazines such as Sediments Literary Review, The Kalahari Review, Afrikan Mbiu, Ibis Head Review and The Single Story Foundation Issue I. In 2016, he was long-listed for the RL Poetry Award (International Category). In 2017, He was listed by Nanty Green as one of the top ten contemporary poets you should be reading.
He tweets @blvckboyfly
Cover Picture by Pixabay.