the echo of a wound after interment
father, the path to your grave
s t r e t c h e s like an elastic placenta
affixed to my lacrimal sac.
your ghost gulps me empty into the black hole
it calls a stomach.
and my face, none will ever know
why it hangs like the haunted moon
smeared with the bleeding butts of fireflies over
nyanya, the eve of the bomb blast.
an eventide tale
in the bush where once danced
the mango tree he planted as a boy—
they play— little boys & little girls.
in their laughter, ixora in bloom.
allergic to aubades, his brother’s ghost
stuffs his ears with beckons,
and the colours of his dreamscape.
9:34 p.m.
he leans on the clayey
breast of the wall,
gulping the dry harmattan wind
to wither the daffodils in his chest.
firoro
dear river,
perhaps, the womb you sprung
was from a sett bored too deep,
it struck the aquifers
of someone’s heart, & it bled /ˈbliːdɪŋ/
one who is now healing
[the woman with the issue of blood]
your river birds, i heard, bartered their syrinx
for nests on trees whose prayers
of survival the axeman answered.
liquid library of childhood memories flowing/collected
into the interval between the sun passing
the rein to the moon, & the moon taking it.
[the moment god fails to be omniscient/when he sleeps
dear kemisola, i remember how the moon would
brood our bodies on the riverbank till it hatched
into flowers that must never be planted elsewhere—
flowers soon transplanted soils apart who
became wreaths on the early grave of dead love.
Martins Deep (he/him) is a Nigerian poet, photographer, & boy child advocate. He is passionate about documenting muffled stories of the African experience in his poetry & visual art. His creative works have appeared, or are forthcoming on The Roadrunner Review, Barren Magazine, Chestnut Review, Mineral Lit Mag, Agbowó Magazine, Kalopsia Literary Journal, Surburban Review, The Quills, Kalahari Review, Variant Literature, Typehouse Literary Magazine, IceFloe Press, Dream Glow, The Alchemy Spoon, & elsewhere. He loves to listen to jazz & classical music. He also adores the songs of Jenn Johnson, Amanda Cook, & Taya Smith. He wishes to reincarnate as a singing owl nesting on the shoulder of a pianist child prodigy. Wave him on Twitter: @martinsdeep1
Discussion1 Comment
Martins be deep?