Seaing
By Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arówólò
two boys drifting over the sea,
their bodies rotting away like wounded
seals at the shore;
i, too, have drowned as a kid but
i was too nauseous to be swallowed
by the sea. so, i was vomited, gasping, and spewing
saltwater like a sperm-whale.
when i visit the beach, a wave of bitter memories
overwhelms me like a tsunami and i don’t usually
know what song to sing away these losses the sea
has embodied;
loss of boys & girls burrowing every porous
border on Mediterranean for greener pastures because
home never stops growing disasters;
loss of a father bluing, the colour of sea, as
he plunges beneath the Mainland
bridge because depression is a metaphor
for a fire raging in his body & dying, sometimes,
is a conclusion to pains, a curtain drawn
over the monstrosity of life.
i am drinking coffee this misty morning,
cracks on my fragile skin from Harmattan
& the world freezes right before me like icicle
saying: i have been too beautiful for humans
i am naked and harmed. who knows if tomorrow
i will be here again, breathing?
sometimes, i too want to will myself
to the sea hoping to meet my dead mother
on the other side.
two boys drifting over the sea,
their bodies rotting away like wounded
seals at the shore;
i, too, have drowned as a kid but
i was too nauseous to be swallowed
by the sea. so, i was vomited, gasping, and spewing
saltwater like a sperm-whale.
when i visit the beach, a wave of bitter memories
overwhelms me like a tsunami and i don’t usually
know what song to sing away these losses the sea
has embodied;
loss of boys & girls burrowing every porous
border on Mediterranean for greener pastures because
home never stops growing disasters;
loss of a father bluing, the colour of sea, as
he plunges beneath the Mainland
bridge because depression is a metaphor
for a fire raging in his body & dying, sometimes,
is a conclusion to pains, a curtain drawn
over the monstrosity of life.
i am drinking coffee this misty morning,
cracks on my fragile skin from Harmattan
& the world freezes right before me like icicle
saying: i have been too beautiful for humans
i am naked and harmed. who knows if tomorrow
i will be here again, breathing?
sometimes, i too want to will myself
to the sea hoping to meet my dead mother
on the other side.
dying, breathing
for Sunshine
you are wild—a wounded fox
surviving the mean company of cougars.
& this world is an asphalt jungle, everything
about it is eating you in some way like rust
chewing the body of an old chainsaw.
a voice note from you, every syllable
is empty of euphoria. a susurrus of silence.
it is true, depression is a decoy of death;
you wear this loneliness like a lovely jumpsuit.
i write you halfway into a poem, the sea of my eyes
grows impatient & drowns all the lines.
i suck terribly at the art of not ebbing toward
sorrow when i fail to hear the singing
birds in the attic of your mouth. but, beloved, i hope
you are free today like a dying pigeon rescued
from thorned shrubs. may your life be wild and wonderful.
i have been plagued too much
i don’t want another loss spreading over my heart like a wildfire.
so when i break you open tomorrow, let me find
within your bones a ripened joy.
N.B—line in italics is culled from Ernest Ogunyemi’s amen.
BIO:
Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arówólò (he/him/his) is a Nigerian emerging writer, frontier V and an undergrad of Mass Communication. He is passionate about inequality, politics, domestic violence, and child rights. His works have appeared or forthcoming in Brittle Paper, Rough Cut Press, Poetry Column ND, Rigorous Magazine, Afreecan Read, Ice Floe Press, Rise Up Review, Inverse Journal, Better Than Starbucks, Lumiere Review, B'K magazine, In Parentheses Art, Rulerless Magazine, and elsewhere. He is the August winner of PIN-10 DAY POETRY and has been shortlisted in BPPC's June/July Anthology. In his leisure time, he is either writing, reading or binge-watching cartoons.
Twitter Handle: @eniola_abdulroq
you are wild—a wounded fox
surviving the mean company of cougars.
& this world is an asphalt jungle, everything
about it is eating you in some way like rust
chewing the body of an old chainsaw.
a voice note from you, every syllable
is empty of euphoria. a susurrus of silence.
it is true, depression is a decoy of death;
you wear this loneliness like a lovely jumpsuit.
i write you halfway into a poem, the sea of my eyes
grows impatient & drowns all the lines.
i suck terribly at the art of not ebbing toward
sorrow when i fail to hear the singing
birds in the attic of your mouth. but, beloved, i hope
you are free today like a dying pigeon rescued
from thorned shrubs. may your life be wild and wonderful.
i have been plagued too much
i don’t want another loss spreading over my heart like a wildfire.
so when i break you open tomorrow, let me find
within your bones a ripened joy.
N.B—line in italics is culled from Ernest Ogunyemi’s amen.
BIO:
Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arówólò (he/him/his) is a Nigerian emerging writer, frontier V and an undergrad of Mass Communication. He is passionate about inequality, politics, domestic violence, and child rights. His works have appeared or forthcoming in Brittle Paper, Rough Cut Press, Poetry Column ND, Rigorous Magazine, Afreecan Read, Ice Floe Press, Rise Up Review, Inverse Journal, Better Than Starbucks, Lumiere Review, B'K magazine, In Parentheses Art, Rulerless Magazine, and elsewhere. He is the August winner of PIN-10 DAY POETRY and has been shortlisted in BPPC's June/July Anthology. In his leisure time, he is either writing, reading or binge-watching cartoons.
Twitter Handle: @eniola_abdulroq
