GRIEF IS A STEEL BLADE OR THE NAME FOR EVERYTHING THAT BREAKS A BOY

in between walls that keep strangling my portrait,

i'm a boy on a sleeveless errand, a futile journey,

or an extended metaphor for serial rejection & failure.

my days hinge on the broken wings of a bird in agony.

grief is a name for everything that breaks a boy:

into syllables, into a yodel with fluctuating falsettos

in the mouth of a widow, into the last flickers of light

from a dying flame. tonight, i'm a trapped nightingale

learning to sing a new guttural song. for hooked fish

gasping for breath never wag its tail in mirth.

life is but a scary nightmare of a lost paradise.

living is a mere hallucination of allegorical images.

death is a threshold leading to elysium — my long

awaited messiah. take me into your arms of darkness

— enwrap me in a golden sepulchre. lead me

on a pilgrimage in a chariot of white horses racing home.

JAMIU AHMED is a Lagos-based Nigerian Writer and Blogger. He has several works featured and forthcoming on digital literary platforms such as Eboquills, Poemify, The Quills, The Consio Magazine, The Mexodus, Artmosterrific & elsewhere. His writings have also performed well in competitions organised by Poets in Nigeria (PIN) and Word Rhymes and Rhythm.