poem

this is how i title untitled poems
or how do we begin the sermon of a boy
tracing out sanity on the bodyof a dew-laden windscreen?

another time, he’s found listening
to the music of dancing leaves.

maybe wellness is lurked
in the breeze that rushes through his body.

maybe he should chase wind
into the body of earth or sea.

maybe july will remind him that
dead plants will still rise as august visitors.

yes. the earth is a boa
it has swallowed things, & still counting;

but there are places
where it sprouts what it swallowed
by way of blossoms.

but a boy seeking peace in death
is a seed watered by depression,
& when iroko grows, it becomes an egoistic god
massaged with perpetual appeasements.

& the body of a boy carrying deep sighs
is a labyrinth of hot coals:
it burns things. even the title of a poem.

***

Taofeek Ayeyemi (fondly called Aswagaawy), a Nigerian lawyer and writer with works appearing or forthcoming in Lucent Dreaming, Ethel-zine, the QuillS, Modern Haiku, Akitsu Quarterly,  contemporary haibun online et al; won Honorable Mention Prize in 2020 Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest, 2019 Morioka International Haiku Contest and 2nd Prize in 2016 Christopher Okigbo Poetry Prize.