I gave a brother in Islam my sweat glands &

Sebaceous glands & a covering of hair by the road.

Wine and gingerbread cooked in chlorine,

The body screams in glass wallpapers the theory of life

And fig is date with a stench of macro molecules covering earth

A chest cracks and the atmosphere is snowy again,

Cells; not the simplest form pain can be,

My hands,carry the aura of a damp windowpane

Painting a silhouette red; my skin is leather shell

Of liquefied chromosomes, plutonium in a throat,

A brother swallows chaos and lays to rest,

Glucose plus oxygen and I’m growing towards the breaking Dawn

This brother steals my faith and his fate is now

My Qadr wrapped in a Qada’a that I have never seen

He swipes through my glass skin with fingers,

Equal of length-left side —left-right side—right

And all the omens of a kite on fire are owls with my eyes

And brown transformations of heavens glow, tipsy

Blocked, breaking colours of grief by the

Rose lip and all are soon kisses no more.

Abdulrazaq Salihu is a 17 year old Nigerian poet and writer. He is a member of the hilltop creative arts foundation and was the winner of the December edition of the splendors of Dawn poetry foundation poetry and short story contest .He was shortlisted for both categories of the Nigerian prize for teen authors (poetry and prose) where his poetry manuscript Constellations won the poetry category and his collection of short stories Hiccups was the first runner up in the prose category. He has been published internationally and nationally in different magazines and journals like pine cone review, Konya Shamsrumi, stories from the heart, Amulet poetry, world voices magazine, Icefloe magazine, conceit magazine and more. He has also gained recognitions In anthologies around the world from SHAGAZ, to Christmas tide, waa re kisan, Rio grande valley international poetry festival and more. He is a two time winner of the most valuable contestant (male) at HIASFEST and has also won other prizes in categories like on the spot poetry, spoken words, and on the spot essay. He was interviewed in 2021 by Zee Aslam of the Northern literary forum which was published on the campus watch. If Abdulrazaq Salihu is not thinking about life, then he’s probably thinking of better ways to approach Minna young scientists forum a science platform he founded for young scientists.