Auto destruction manual
Once food enters the body
It brings with it the necessary ingredients
For the bio bacteria in the gut
To sustain life and bring death
Until this star has run its course.
Auto destruction manual
Once food enters the body
It brings with it the necessary ingredients
For the bio bacteria in the gut
To sustain life and bring death
Until this star has run its course.
To vacillate
We were walking down a prairie
Trespassing on an old lady’s territory
Our loud arguments disrupting nature’s harmony
And our minds still infused
With shopping list
Sexual frustrations
Family shenanigans
The crumbs of modernity choking our lives
The bubble was going to burst
Just as a breath of roses and jasmine
Took the cloak of fatigue off me
Oiled my joints
And left with graceful hips
.
Your stare turned cold and stone
I wasn’t listening once again
My sins were spelled out in your gaze
I closed my eyes
To swim again in roses and jasmine
To feel the bliss, the twinkles
We used to have for one another
Up in the sky, clouds played out
Lost tales of gods, monsters and men
This day was coming to an end
And we were left vacillating
Between intimacy and anonymity
Our steps were slightly out of tune
I tried to wrap you and tuck you
With just one look and the faint “yes”
Tugging in the corner of your lips
Meshed well with nature’s sweet cacophony
Spring was finally here.
Names
A name is a distance between one heart and another
A name, a proper one must be licked properly
You have three names:
One to brush the hairs on your skin
Another to tug your heart
And one to put you on a leash
Some names are so sweet they melt
On your tongue and light you up
Head to toes
Some names are so sour they make
You question existence.
A name is a fallen soldier with no tag
Like a dog in the streets of Kinshasa.
And there’s the way babies snatch the whole of you
They lift the veil wrapped tightly around you
Their eyes not knowing what they are seeing
Or feeling what they are seeing.
So you hide your name in your breast pocket
And forget it altogether
Even when it’s printed on billboards
And you pass it by everyday
On your way to epic stuff
A life is how many times
You walked and ran
The length of your name
Sliding and climbing
One letter to the next
And falling, yes, falling a lot
While your shadow takes your name
From the breast pocket
And goes around causing déjà vus all over the place.
A Ma Mere
Author: Camara Laye
Black woman, African woman, O my mother I think of you …
Daman O, O my mother, you who
carried me on the back, you who fed me,
You who govern my first steps,
you who first opened my eyes
the wonders of the earth, I think of you …
Woman in the fields, rivers woman, wife of the great river,
O thou, my mother, I think of you …
Daman O thou, O my mother, you who
wiped my tears, you who makes
the heart rejoice, you who
patiently endured my quirks,
I would still like to be near you, being a child near you …
O Daman, Daman of the great
family of blacksmiths, my thoughts
always turn to you, yours
at every step with me, O
Daman, my mother, as I
still be in your warmth, be
child close to you …
Black woman, African woman, O
you, my mother, thank you, thank you for everything
what you did for me, your son, if
away, so close to you!
Sun Drenched
The sun soiled children bathe under the sun
They gather sun rays under their arms
And let their shiny smiles swell their baby cheeks
They grab the stars in their tiny hands
And hide them under the sea before the sun comes up
When they sing, the wind blows and the trees dance
The sun soiled children sleep under the moon
They draw rainbows in the sky with confidence
And talk seasons into sleep
When they cry, rain falls and rivers swell
They swim down the ocean and race the dragon sea to the shore
They feed on leaves with one hand and drink the left knee up
The sun soiled children bathe under the sun
Waiting, waiting for the forgotten lullaby.
My eyelids have gained weight.
My heart drums fast against my chest.
My tongue lies dead in my mouth.
I despise living.
The sun can’t crack through dusty windows.
The sofa smells like urine of some dead animal.
The wind comes and goes like it owns the place.
There’s not much to talk about.
My thoughts sound like pigs at the butcher.
My feelings are open wounds sprinkled with salt.
My memories crumble this moment.
I have beef with God.
Dragon tickled to merriment
Rain tapped gently at the windows
Etienne was out in the world
Miriam was between this sea and the next
Testing the waters she says
Mater searched for the North star
Her palm extended covering up the moon
While I stand in my growling river
Deeply shaken with every running current
A bonsai tree breathing under water
Tickles a dragon to merriment
Loose fragments of family photos trap vignettes of a lukewarm life
Etienne walked life like a tightrope walker
The hands on his watch still and stubborn
While Miriam laughed in the comforts of a cloud
This family turns with ease blood into water
And then water into a dead sea
Where the past ferments fruitless trees
Every branch in this family has a skin of truth
These skins of truth make me shudder
Whenever I brush their surfaces
“I’m alive” they whisper.
Our toes tickled the Earth
Our faces looked like a child’s sandbox
They strained under the weight of the world they carried
Every line carried a story
Every line contained a capsule of scents
Those sweets and sour yesterdays
We were too busy to revisit
Our hands had impetuous rivers for veins
They listened carefully for the pulse of things
With open palms ready to be nailed at every cross
That showed up on the road
Our lives ran up and down the lines in our palms
Trying to dig up our names buried in shame
Our toes tickled the Earth
Into humming her name
They held between themselves
Little souvenirs of every place.
Breathing was happening in all the rooms
but each had to dig their own tunnels
and air didn’t come cheap these days
so people sold limbs, lovers and loved ones
just for a gasp of air
and all I could think is is why not?
The sky’s the limit when your living soul is at stake
I am a hunter of waves
I see a gesture
I feel her smile here
I sense a prickle there
and off I am
a bird with new wings
learning where I start and end
because the abyss can open up whenever
one blink, a stammer, an uncontrollable pulse
and off you are sliding
giving in so easily
what took centuries to make
and forgetting what it means to play
where laughter has died
and find rhythm
where songs have left
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