I wrote these three poems below as comments on these three pictures of me. I am not a very good photographer neither do I photograph well. Two of the pictures were taken by me while one was taken by a friend. As you can see, I don’t smile much.
I feel like the pictures that I took speak more truth than the one in which I smiled, which was taken by my friend @ikonigbins, a long time ago. On the day in which he took that picture, the one in which I am smiling with my teeth shining in the sun, I had just lost my job. I had walked along airport road in Benin City with no purpose, for hours, not willing to go home and explain to my folks that I no longer had a job.
I had gone to the King’s Square (Ring Road) and there I met @ikonigbins and his future wife, then his girlfriend. They kept me company and made me smile. Some bleak days just turn out right, right?
The themes in the three poems attached to each picture are themes that reflect parts of me that I try to keep hidden. I am a private person emotionally; I try to be careful with exposing myself to the world. I have, in these poems, tried to give you access to what goes inside me. Maybe you will be able to see it in the pictures after reading the poem, maybe not.
I will leave the poems untitled, as they had come out spontaneously and I do not feel like giving them an identity. Maybe you will find more meaning out of these words than I can. I just can’t deal right now.
First Poem
Stone – cracked visage cold,
Burnt black, sepia toned – lost.
Old wounds fleeing memory, pain bleeding slow;
Gaze at it. Let it warn you, whisper to you.
Watch it crouch further down, claiming broken bodies.
Marble brown face hiding questions,
Seeking escape between shut lips mumbling pleas,
Cursing gods that lie wasted and broken
Before old altars, before fickle worshippers
Who sacrifice gods to savor sins, to succor death.
Second Poem
Laughter; a deception, a lie
Hiding truth in white teeth,
Smiling at you as if the world
Was a playground and butterflies
Were never cocoons eaten by bats.
Crumbling walls clinging to creepers
Drying in the sun, withering
Like the harmattan leaves of forgotten trees,
Like the fading skull surveying the Sahara
Trekking under the old bored sun counting grains
Among old camel footprints and empty water bottles
Lonely lips hide the tears between
Each wrinkled eyelids, between
Old laugh lines fading into worry ridges,
Broken open by constipated nights and empty memories,
Set free by fires that burn bodies that
Scream for father in the stars
While those distant burning gases heat up another man
Far , far away from here.
Third Poem
Suspicion; thieves of souls;
Knives and guns bleeding
Between interlocking tiles
Like friends broken of bonds
But holding on like glue losing strength,
Like the last flare of the dying sun,
Like a kiss of the surf
On the retreating tide of the moon.
Fear; unknown shadows slipping
Into empty rooms stuffed full with dreams.
Suspicious eyes sit with thoughts and spy the world;
Fear the known, dread the hell of living
And the numbness of death.
Suspicions! Please come see where I live,
Come see what I dream; come,
See where I hide my fears.
Suspicions; alone, lonely
Hidden between the shadows of the empty room;
Between the silent quiver of cold bed sheets,
Between the muttering wind, speaking
Of dying things and a world that burns.
The photographs were edited on my Infinix Hot Note.
Airdrop Airdrop Airdrop
I am heading to Benin City today. I am going to speak to some friends about steemit. Yes, they deserve to know.
I have 150 followers now. Yippee!! I love you guys for finding something in my blog, worth clinging to.
Oh yes, Steemit Poets Unite poetry review was hosted by me on Thursday; yes the Warped Issue. Check it out here
What else, well I am still making new friends, learning new stuff, building new relationships and steeming too.
You can join me on the following discord servers;