Two Poems – Agunbiade Kehinde

In Abeyance

I see cobwebs morph into a tapestry—

an unchecked art depicting a longing

for a world itching for proximate embrace.

To get stuck in the orbits of distance is to be

in a terrain fraught with the pristine visage of silence;

the visible geography of the wind coursing through

the world—a large open body in which loss

and desire struggle for space as days unfurl

into nights of dark insomnia, memories laden

with the burden of pains—sharp as the edge of a sword.

I reach for the hand of my lover and hit an echo,

walls caterwauling for a scintilla of colour.

The falling steel, the blind window, the slamming song—

a lonely song, bellyaching, mirth in abeyance.

In the bathtub, I see a withdrawn face in the mirror,

the reflection of an empty room, the immobility of reality.

Slow song

At this moment I stash the daisies in my throat
and try to call my lover’s name. But I miscarry my tongue.

My emotion is as raw as the blood in the bathtub:
the pints the sun kisses and scoffs heavily.

I’m flying till morning into this deep with my wings thudding,
a flight chaotic as the din locked in my head.

In the room in which we are locked, the air wants to set me free,
as my heart thaws while fumbling through the sky for a safe star.

What if all of these mean nothing at the end of the cacophony?
I mean I am the boy caterwauling in the dark of the night;

The boy whose eyes jibe with the width of the sea
watching the visage of the world, like a spiral of mysteries.

I am the slow song on the radio in the late part of the night
meant to serenade listeners to sleep, but reminds them

that love is not always symphonic—I am Adele’s vocal distance.
I am The Weeknd’s book of songs drenched from the blood.

I sing, I cry, I tug, I ooze, I reek, I sashay through
the density of loving, the velocity of breaking.

My love, when you’re ready, my body is an entry
as wide as it is an exit door. This play is overstretched.

Agunbiade Kehinde is a young Nigerian poet, essayist, and campus journalist. His works have featured in Vagabond City Lit, Rising Phoenix Review, Kalahari Review, African Writer, The Pangolin Review among others. He studies Literature-in-English at the department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University. Twitter: @akehinde71

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