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The Centre

David Ishaya Osu

 

the centre           

 of a moon and the yolk of         
an eye of           
the longest river     
     
booking the edges     
     
of a burnt earth. genesis     
     
is that toad   
        
you want to kill     
   
 for giving birth t your favourite singer.       
we say we want doors without locks   
     
skins without colours     
     
and the shapes of     
     
soles as open books, have we not   
     
eaten a raw star and     
     
wished to take more?
–murderer        
yet you ask, what     
     
is the afterlife of     
     
a phoenix

· · ·


 Waiting

she had a swimsuit     
    
made of star           
lights and moonsmoke. she was always
called, this man        
at night         
and that fish   in the morning. can you swear        
with your bible          
that you don’t love me, she’d argue;       
can’t you just be a stone,        
he’d shout back. bedtime is         
deathtime, so   
        
go back to your river      
     
and die. over and over and over   
     
again, till she went away    
     
with the last water in the spring  
     
the midnight everyone was looking   
     
for what   
        
will make their tongue    
     
a skateboard. where is    
     
this man, where is that fish    
     
he was screamed at. the globe holding the town’s only light    
fell on his head and      
     
he began to snore, snow    
     
flakes running out of  his skin. then they covered him with   
  
the swimsuit and waited for morning. for morning.   
· · ·

Revelation
we kept drinking          
the rain till   
        
our tongue turned     
     
black as the white     
     
in a mirror   
        
at night. at night night    
     
shivering in a wind     
     
guarding your pores     
     
and your nose   
        
from the scent of     
     
a near rainbow     
     
habit. and   
        
we resumed drinking     
     
till the morning turned into    
     
a black veil bright     
     
as the pages of a clean river    
     
opening and opening     
     
revealing the underskirts    
     
of mermaids  
  


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About David Ishaya Osu

David Ishaya Osu (b. October 27, 1991) is a Nigerian poet. His works have appeared in publications such as: The New Black Magazine, Atlas Poetica: A Journal of World Tanka, Birmingham Arts Journal, RaedLeaf Poetry India: The African Diaspora Folio, A Thousand Voices Rising: An Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry, Watershed Review, The Bombay Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, Souvenir, among others. He is a board member of the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation. He is also a street photography enthusiast. David has completed a manuscript of 50 short poems in honour of his mum who recently clocked 50.

Filed Under: Poetry

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