Question Time, Answer Time.
please, what. is the definition of politics?
i cough many bottles. down. i
s t a g g e r. permit me, to. say something first:
if i die, with rags hanging on my neck
like a birthmark, will the silhouette of these dreams chase my shadow?
my dreams are many:
a lover
a box of light
a dream. a dream.
a bird’s wing.
a song of the wind – i fear they no more be my coat.
okay, wait. i want to swallow my pride into the well. /my throat is a well/ – your throat is a well when it lacks the nutrients of peace.
i do not know
how. to. define. politics.
in lagos, yesterday, i birthed some mouth of graves. catacombs. cat – a – combs – into the soil.
the sun sulked my hair dry. hair dry. i play on words.
i. play on worlds. politics: poll tricks.
hotness of Summer hurtness of Summer
loss a mother is grieving over the death of a son [out of sons].
the president says our votes are scorpions – they only sting, they never
sing. last night, i saw a boy burying his father alive. do not mind him. do not mind the gullible tea his father drinks. a country’s failed song
does not suit a dying leg.
a bird’s wing does not fly when she is
cursed. when this curse does not suit her lips.
we become a refuse dump. i’m sorry. we do not become refuse dumps.
the thing we become is the mouth of this poem: artilleries…
Shitta Faruq Adémólá is a young Muslim Poet, Phone Photographer and Fiction Writer From Nigeria. His works appear or are forthcoming in Jalada Africa, The Kalahari Review, Third Estate Art, Rigorous Magazine, Chautaqua, Praxis Magazine, African Writers and elsewhere.
He was a joint winner in the Shuzia PenProtest Contest, 2020; a second place winner in Naija Haiku Contest, 2020; and also a joint winner in PIN 10-DAY Poetry challenge (November 2020. He always believe Simi’s voice are always ever charming. When he’s not playing Scrabbles, he’s admiring fair ladies along the busy streets in Abeoukuta. Say hi on Twitter @shittafaruqade1.
