perhappened mag
issue 8: LOVERS
ode to the woman
of a lineage of fire
ỌBÁFẸ́MI THANNI
On a night when the moon is missing,
I praise the kindness of the sky for shutting the
moon’s eye. For relieving her of that
unblinking watch. I wonder, who reciprocates
this kindness? Who gives the sky a place to hide
himself? I whisper to the sky to
leave, one cloud at a time, into the home
of your laughter. In my list of joys, a line
sings of your name. When the clouds ask how
the fortune of you happened to me, I tell them I
was in a poem, saying the prayer of a broken boy
and you were seated in a yellow dress, blinding as a
shard of the sun, quiet as an Amen.
I praise the kindness of the sky for shutting the
moon’s eye. For relieving her of that
unblinking watch. I wonder, who reciprocates
this kindness? Who gives the sky a place to hide
himself? I whisper to the sky to
leave, one cloud at a time, into the home
of your laughter. In my list of joys, a line
sings of your name. When the clouds ask how
the fortune of you happened to me, I tell them I
was in a poem, saying the prayer of a broken boy
and you were seated in a yellow dress, blinding as a
shard of the sun, quiet as an Amen.
Ọbáfẹ́mi Thanni is a writer whose poetry was shortlisted for the 2019 Christopher Okigbo Poetry Prize. He is a reader at The Masters Review and is currently making attempts at beauty. Twitter: @obafemithanni; Instagram: @obafemithanni.