Written By: Samuel Adeyemi

today, i am more splinter than bone,
more shard than glass. i would
rather break than bend for at least
there is a finality.

the pages of my life flip above the
candlelight; chapters charring to grey,
though the paper hasn’t lowered into the
flame. isn’t torture the greatest coward?

curse the night that refused to let me
drown with her dying light. i ask my prayer
to bring me the sting of a painless death,
to kiss anesthesia into my blood. but the
horizon opens up before my eyes. this
sempiternal calvary–it never ends.

watch me fail at each attempt & break
my chest against the stones I picked
to build–this is how the war becomes
the weapon, the antidote; the affliction.

i am furthest from you, my dear desire.
you sail so smoothly away & my ship
keeps sinking behind your grace.

if you are a drizzle, i am the lightning
that ruins. you, the language, i, a tongue
of chaos. i am the body of passivity.
an ocean of nothing. too empty to live,
so cowardly to die.

Samuel Adeyemi is a Nigerian writer and an effortless lover of literature. He uses his writings to communicate his life experiences as well as to express the things he wishes society to be aware of. Samuel hails from Kogi state and resides in Abuja. He writes from Lokoja, the city where he currently schools in. His poetry collection, Anxiety and Things that Shatter, can be gotten for free on the Smashwords website.