By Olabisi Abiodun Akinwale:
Butterflies- Day 12
Kedike
somewhere before this poem,
your absence leaves my body with desolated places
& I’ve been wandering in silence on roads
that leads to moister voices & everywhere a sound
imitates shape of the full moon in your mouth,
still, no girl vapourizes my heartbeat the way you do:
the Igbo girls claim sunrise begins with their skins
& as long as the sun do not betray them
they could pluck men’s eye to enrich their bodies.
the Hausa girls are jewels in beauty’s savannah,
with pointed nose shooting shots at men’s heart
& voices like the melodious lullabies of songbirds.
the Yoruba girls are prettily spontaneous in charisma,
they create wonders & displace men in their arts
& sometimes they wear your face & gestures,
but I swear, I see you at every stare.
& what I’m trying to say is,
when Asa said ‘iwo nikan sho sho’,
she spoke for the voices in my body
screaming halleluiah to every sermon of you.
& that means when Chidinma sang ‘Kedike’
she sang for the butterflies loving you breeds.
Anike, & that means my art-beat remembers the word love
only when I thought of you & flowers wade in magic.
© Olabisi Abiodun Akinwale
Undiluted Poet
#undilutedpoetry