There are several facets of boyhood that we do not often talk about. Ariyo Ahmad weaves some of them into this rather beautiful poem which is replete with mesmerizing metaphors and other poetic devices. It is such a delight to share it with you.

– Editorial Team

I Know About Boys Whose Dream Was Put Off by Gunshot

This is a parcel of disaster
A gift of sorrow and a box
Of atrocity in a mothers’ mind
Committed by
a careless man’s gunshot,
That run aimlessly into a boy’s body
Who chases his dream, under the burning sun

About boys whose souls are extirpated
and bodies rested into the Cavity
Of the land
like a dolphin swallowed by a shark

Boys who became a memory
that hang in the eyes of their mothers
of boys who are the herald of grief

Of boys whose book of biography
consist of empty and dried pages

Of boys who became a squeezed
flower in the hand of a heartless human
of boys whose light of dreams
Was snuffed out by the water of hatred

Of boys whose years are spent
taking the manna of adversity
of whom poverty remembers them
and riches, shut out

I know about boys whose dreams
were put off by gunshots

Contributor’s Bio

ARIYO AHMAD is a Nigerian poet who blends his thought into paper with his ever-flowing pen, whose inspiration is tapped from his beloved mother, and his late father who has sojourn to the land of immortal, he graciously has his poem published and forthcoming in African writers magazine, upwrite magazine, words and whispers, nymphs magazine, madness muse magazine among others, when he is not writing, he finds himself relishing Khalil Gibran poems.