Tajudeen Muadh

opium

outside the night, the sky is starting to drown
itself in too much dark.

I walked the defiance of swallows. walked till
morning pulled over —the light outliving me—

& wanting  to nudge into me, like my
brothers eaten out by time–

scars are ways of recalling existence,
on my back, every bump is sacred–

once in bethel, I watched the thurible and
remember, the night  of my sizzling.

like a swing, morning emerges
glory with the  elegance of fire—

tonight, it  lingers. but in memento,
this grief too, could fill a room.

I stand— cone-less like

flowers in winter until boys half
my sanity picked me out

of secateurs pruning my skin, in
ways bodies submit to butchery.

I still wonder, how boys half filled
with light could set me on fire

had I glowed, you'd have mistaken me for
something luminescent than ash

Tajudeen Muadh is a poet from Osun state, Nigeria. He has works featured or forthcoming in magazines such as African poetry magazine, brittle paper, Ecopunk literary magazine, eboquills, Konya shamsrumi and elsewhere.