CW: explosions, death
after Michael Lee
when the second bomb went off, the whole family was awake.
i launched into the bluey dusk & searched the heavens for a
tower of smoke. by morning, we turned the TV on, & the news
reverbed with a naming of cadavers. life, as fragile as a hiss.
imagine the explosion unfurling into the night; the sky
a brushstroke of ruby, the harmattan torn open by a heatwave--
a weather nesting inside a weather / a womb burning herself out.
O, what anarchy. on a pavement, a couple lit like twin stakes,
shrapnel teething into bone.
when we mourn, we do it gently. the ears of our terrorists are
mushrooms. one is growing on the hem of this poem.
today, if you pass by the bombed-out park, it is flourishing
like an afterlife. there are flowers wavering upon the earth
once watered by a blood spray.
when the second bomb went off, the whole family was awake.
i launched into the bluey dusk & searched the heavens for a
tower of smoke. by morning, we turned the TV on, & the news
reverbed with a naming of cadavers. life, as fragile as a hiss.
imagine the explosion unfurling into the night; the sky
a brushstroke of ruby, the harmattan torn open by a heatwave--
a weather nesting inside a weather / a womb burning herself out.
O, what anarchy. on a pavement, a couple lit like twin stakes,
shrapnel teething into bone.
when we mourn, we do it gently. the ears of our terrorists are
mushrooms. one is growing on the hem of this poem.
today, if you pass by the bombed-out park, it is flourishing
like an afterlife. there are flowers wavering upon the earth
once watered by a blood spray.
Samuel Adeyemi is an eighteen-year-old Nigerian writer and an ardent lover of literature. When he is not writing, he enjoys watching anime and listening to a variety of music. You may reach him on Twitter and Instagram @samuelpoetry.