FINDING PEACE IN A THOUSAND WORDS

I read your words

Years after the grim’s scythe

Tore through the dark

Dividing our hearts

Into a thousand cries

Tell me, how does death sound

On the other side?

I read your words

At the start of noon

And it birthed constellations

In my eyes

the words of the dead

Weighs heavy on the chest

Than “lubs" and "dubs."

Tell me, how does the heart sound

On the other side?

How does the sunrise?

I read your words

In a Lagos bus

The driver trapped in the cruelty of living

The wheel in one hand

And a failed stick leading nowhere in the other

Tell me, how does the road move

On the other side?

I read your words

On your Facebook post

It tells of how proud you were

To crest my name on your lips

Like honey, melting, hugging the tip of your tongue

Your buds would dance all night

Breaking into melodies and rhythms of a thousand beeps

Your baby just survived a dreadful surgery

He is alive.

I read your words, Mother

Lines of poetry will fall

In the pleasant beauty

Of your heart.

I read your words

And it broke into a thousand arms

Holding me closely, tightly with a thousand hugs.

Peace, I’m still.

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