i would have written a poem about dreams, but
none have i .
sleep isn't a necessity here:
it is luxury.
 
my feet move so fast,
my eyelids battle more often to see the future 
than drift into slumber.
 
here, sparks of fire cut through the clouds
like lightning. 
my feet race in rhythm to the
yells of unyielding guns.
 
peace has exited our lexicon
—violence is the only lingua we comprehend,
blistered on our tongues,
triggered on our fingertips.
 
somewhere in the crannies of my fatherland,
bullets chase my scarred body 
through a morass 
of mounting debris and flying shrapnel,
 
and at the edge of the cliff, i dive
into a constellation of hopelessness,
splashing my entry 
into the rivers where i am
the flotsam
leftover of the war raging inside of me.
 
i let these restless waves of uncertainty paddle me
away from here. 
somewhere. anywhere. 
because, beyond the horizon, a utopia lies 
where dreams shall
be a luxury my bloodshot eyes can afford.

BIOGRAPHY

Muheez Olawale is a Nigerian writer whose restless pen bathes in inky oceans of eloquence. He won the CEF Poetry Competition. In 2023, he took the second position in poetry writing at NIMC Identity Day Competition. He has works forthcoming/published on African Writer Magazine, The Muse, Words-Empire, Writers Space Africa, Copihue Poetry, Poetry Journal and elsewhere. You can find him on Instagram @muheez__olawale.