let life be, let peace be
By Flourish Joshua
brother, gaze into the night. what do you see?
children picking crickets &; calling them by
the names of the things their fathers tried to be
but failed at? darkness so thick you could knife
it into bits? what mouth ate the toddlers’ song?
tonight is dressed in woe. who called the odes
to glory? what dirge perforated the throat of the
owl’s choir? look, what do you see? nothing but
vessels with emptiness; abundant emptiness. the
moon with all its powder is a failed make-up artist.
the land disappointed us so much it dreads to hold
promise. grief, too, is raping the land of its song.
see, there is a dagger in the chest of every home--
homes will soon hiccup the inhabitants into the cold
mouth of the things that swallows the land.
there, they are eating a baby & making suicide
ropes of the placenta. how did we become an echo?
how did we become the ones who need no fire
to burn? how did we become workers of iniquity
on payrolls? how did we become dogs’ favourite
wound? dead coin? flaming tulip? brittling glory?
broken songs? Pharaoh’s catch? dead flowers? thirsty
river? spiky roses? daylight buglers? fallen grapes?
golgotha? vainglory? dancing blades? naked onions?
let peace be, let life be. let peace be, let life be.
BIO:
Flourish Joshua is a Nigerian poet, and a member of the Frontiers Collective.
brother, gaze into the night. what do you see?
children picking crickets &; calling them by
the names of the things their fathers tried to be
but failed at? darkness so thick you could knife
it into bits? what mouth ate the toddlers’ song?
tonight is dressed in woe. who called the odes
to glory? what dirge perforated the throat of the
owl’s choir? look, what do you see? nothing but
vessels with emptiness; abundant emptiness. the
moon with all its powder is a failed make-up artist.
the land disappointed us so much it dreads to hold
promise. grief, too, is raping the land of its song.
see, there is a dagger in the chest of every home--
homes will soon hiccup the inhabitants into the cold
mouth of the things that swallows the land.
there, they are eating a baby & making suicide
ropes of the placenta. how did we become an echo?
how did we become the ones who need no fire
to burn? how did we become workers of iniquity
on payrolls? how did we become dogs’ favourite
wound? dead coin? flaming tulip? brittling glory?
broken songs? Pharaoh’s catch? dead flowers? thirsty
river? spiky roses? daylight buglers? fallen grapes?
golgotha? vainglory? dancing blades? naked onions?
let peace be, let life be. let peace be, let life be.
BIO:
Flourish Joshua is a Nigerian poet, and a member of the Frontiers Collective.
