This soulful tribute to Abunic Sheriff whose works Eboquills had previously published is moving. Benyeakeh Miapeh writes from the heart, lamenting a talent snatched too soon by death. We pray that the soul of the departed finds rest.

A Broken Lament

For Abunic 

you told me of death/the pain and the weight of its scars

when it paddled a canoe with grandma 

on the hot surface of tears 

my tears still falling on the footprints of death

when it walked off my doorsteps with daddy’s breath 

you undressed death in lines of poetry 

 planted on grandma’s grave

never told me 

that you’ll be a poetry/poetry that will count my teardrops 

ball of my pen runs through your flesh 

for words that’ll give you a pillow in the Lord’s arms 

you left your broken pieces scattered on my sheet like puzzle 

you were the pen i knew 

 -spilled on what it feels to run out of ink

like strolling with breeze along the seashore

& told me not of this day

day that will fall like rain from my eyes 

day that will push the arms of the clock 

without counting the sounds of your breath in the air 

i fasten buttons to cover the pain in my chest

fighting to find the semicolon that once held my poems 

it was Wednesday, when the news pointed gun at my head

& stole happiness of my closet 

march 16/ the chapter of 2022

that taught me how to recite euleulogy 

& write elegy 

for a brother with bundles of unfulfilled dreams 

let the soul Rest In Peace 

as the memories forever Rest In Pain

hoping to capture you again.

Contributor’s Bio

Benyeakeh Miapeh is an aspiring young writer from Liberia. He’s a student of civil engineering at the University of Liberia. He has his poetry works in many online magazines and on other websites such as PoetrySoup, Spillwords, We write Liberia, League of poets, and many others. He believes in expressing his thoughts through poetry.