Threnody
the owl in the cave of father’s mouth warned /but we heed it not, did we?
until a tarantula climbed up
for the sun where it hung /over our kraal, & ate it like a firefly trapped in its web
its fluttering lamp left to quench on the last note of a sad song.
how you were torn open, & hurriedly
like a parcel, brother — a christmas present;
a music box of mother’s anguish/your throes/our household’s silence.
tastebuds grown on the rim of their eardrums —
offsprings of the underworld we never stop cursing
whose diet is the scream of a man that knots broken bonds.
at the scene, my heart beating fast was your footfalls leaving your body behind
for mother to weep formaldehyde on it.
but she was held back. so, you must
slowly fade into a memory
vanishing with the steam from her pot of soup.
Martins Deep is a Nigerian poet & photographer. He is passionate about documenting muffled stories of the African experience in his poetry & visual art. Writing from Kaduna, or whichever place he finds himself, the acrylic of inspiration that spills from his innermost being tends to paint various depictions of humanity/life in his environment. His creative works have appeared, or are forthcoming on Barren Magazine, Chestnut Review, Mineral Lit Mag, Agbowó Magazine, Writers Space Africa, Typehouse Literary Magazine, The Alchemy Spoon, Dream Glow, The Lumiere Review, Variant Literature, & elsewhere. He is also the brain behind Shotstoryz Photography and can be reached on Twitter: (17) Martins Deep (@MartinsDeep1) / Twitter
Banner Art: Mother of the Stars, photo art by Martins Deep
IceFloe Press 