3 Poems by Jolaade Dipe

bonfire

tonight, we are gods
re-entering the realm
of moans/our breaths hitched/
your fingers savouring redemption
beneath me/ i moan in blues/
All time low is breaking the speakers/
you turn my body into a home
searching for refuge/your lips
sucking my demons out/ i am
made of fireworks/ i glow as you
thrust/i shriek as you go deeper/
tonight, i am a bonfire/where you
cremate your fears

behind every flashy hair & lashes

is a belle that groans   with the touch of
       the  peigne.   she blames God
for the texture of her hair.  
         she curses the weaver.
calls her wicked. brutal. & heartless.

  behind her smile is pain &   a physical 
anger     bites every   finger seducing
      her strands of hair.
she  named the pin; a blunt pain,           using the cutting comb is     dwelling in anguish.

 lashes have the story of a blurry
 retina, & a girl — dying.  praying not to  
 die of
                                             blindness.
   she curses the copulation between   the bond & hair.             she harbours torment
    her tongue can’t describe.

Crack

You crack out of the family picture.

You taste like genocidal memories
hanging on the tongue of a lone boy.

You wring the night into a moonless sky,
were you sorry? are you sorry? is this not wrong?

You crack out of the family picture.

Into silhouettes thawing the window slide into sad memories,
a rose for the fragrance you breathe, for the air.

You crack out of the family picture.

Into the body of wind, a besieged god floating on air,
your throat should shriek in my mother’s cries.
Sadness wrapped in our smiles.
you look better than yesterday’s sorrow,
i hope you enjoy tearing salt out our eyes.

You crack out of the family picture into something too sad to own.

Dipe Jola is a teen poet who writes from Lagos. An ardent lover of art & literature with an unhealthy obsession for sunflowers, Ed Sheeran’s music, pizza, Safia and sweet poetry. She was second runner-up, EOPP 2018. Reach her via IG @dipe_jola.