the river behind you wouldn’t 

stop screaming like a woman’s

body burped by anguish.

the half-eaten stars above your 

head glitter like angels’ skin

smoldered by blazing wings.

the window opens wide,

the sleeting fall of the moon’s soutache.

a lush hush of embrace,

the wind cooing underneath the 

tender breasts of the city.

the room smells like a ship,

flown into flight by the tide

of a sea. there is a splash of 

silence on your skin, cracks of 

thoughts, your pores open up,

the soul of a sad song coalesce

your eyes, words flow out of the

containment of this out burst.

You look behind, the blissful promises 

you kindled in half-made dreams,

your mother’s histrionic mouth submerged

by sleep’s warm fingers.

your father’s skin, feted by 

fatigue, a blazing hoot of 

senility eats up the other end of his 

squeezed nose,

You, adhesive to the assemblage 

of stars, the fall of darkness over

a city, You pick up a smile,

& drown into the throat of this 

city, falling is drowning,

at morn, they find your body

shattered & broken on the brown 

face of the Earth like a lifeless

river buried without a coffin.

About The Author

Odukoya Adeniyi is an undergraduate studying English and Education at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. His poems have appeared/forthcoming on Roadrunner Review, Kalahari Review, Praxis magazine, Agbowo, Feral poetry and others. Reach out to him on Twitter @adeniyi_odukoya