LIGHTS & NIGHTS​

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Some days, I shred my tongue.
I frailed my tongue into believing

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I once held love on my tongue.
days come forth and days went.

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I tire. there are days I peel of my
eyes. days I'll uncover my skin

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to see what colors grief is made of.
but home keeps dragging into the centre

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of my head. like bizarred images. I
stretch forth my hands to weave some

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light. but, everything I ever captured
turns into a metaphor. this is not a

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poem about a boy fighting his fears
into metaphors of pity. this is not even

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a poem about how prayers burn
on his throat. how he so much try

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to force out Assalamualaikum
between his gap tooth. sometimes,

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I pray with porcelain as a tongue.
with an assergai piercing my chest.

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every night, my arms wane to write
a poem. I pray to my pen to lend

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me some muse. mine has grown
to be a grave that sprouts hands.

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Kwara State, 2022

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Adamu Yahuza Abdullahi, TPC V, is an alumnus of the SprinNG Writing Workshop, a budding poet, student union activist and community development advocate from Kwara state, Nigeria. He is also a Columnist at Borgu online. He studies botany at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Eunoia review, Brittle paper, Angel rust, Kalahari review, Ngiga review, and others. He is a  nominee for the Best of the Net prize and a Poet of the Year Award receiver.

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www.twitter.com/AdamuYahuzaabd2

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