I write for those little children with licking dreams
with bodies enfeebled from famishment.
They are the upper echelon of misery;
an abstract of pauperism,
with hearts split into millets of mournful morrows.
I write for those little twinkling stars
plucked from those skies
with a burin made from broken bones,
ink extracted from crimson tears and
a roll of parchment from their scratched skins.
I write for those little children unmothered
by murderers,
sucklings snatched from milky breasts,
blastulas buried before breathing life.
I write for those brave children
that tried to dance to the rhythms of machine guns,
striplings who counted bullets in numerals
that shed no tear at the sight of slaughter
who now see munitions as children’s toys.
I write for those children with savaged souls
in Northen heavens
that rehearse their deaths daily
before the Grim Reaper finally arrives.
My pen heralds those caged voices
and supplicates for their freedom
from sorrow's embrace,
for them is to rise and soar
like the mythical phoenix from ashes.
Hopeless Romantic
my love for you was pure
as the naked heavens.
I poured my heart out
like the rendering sea in passionate wave on wave.
I loved you with my whole;
with each facet of my being
(love is never too much (?) they say)
but you hushed me
like a breathless lyre.
my heart fell on the ground,
broke into pieces like a silvery,
shimmering shower of hail.
the sudden thought of your face now
is like a wound when it comes unsought...
a hopeless romantic I am
for I still search for your name
in griffonages written with broken stars.
About The Poet
Sodiq Oyekanmi is a Nigerian poet and a student of the University of Ibadan,
where he currently studies Theatre Arts. He enjoys writing poetry as a creative
outlet that enables him to reflect the word around him. He believes mam must
cling to hope even if it's all he has. His writing is his way of changing the world.
His works Maybe One Day, Frozen Tears and Someday are published on
crowndeservers.com.ng He is currently working on his first poetry chapbook.
He tweets @ Sodiq_Oyekan.