Three Poems by Agbaakin O. Jeremiah
Saturday, November 11, 2017.
1.
THE FULL MOON:
heaven is so close
you only have to crane
your head up: a tiny distance
from your brow.
there you see it: a pale fruit
In the bough of a tall oak
Like a tiny city of light
On a black map:
A lighthouse for distressed birds
Sailing to find nest.
A full moon is rarely hung like God on the cross
for all to see once in the instinct
of saving the human race..
Tonight, he severs the tail of stars
From the body of the moon
She growls like a startled dove
Staring at the jaw of daylight
Only to come back again
At an undisclosed date
Like a Second Coming.
2.
MICROCOSM:
Such a small space
Where we scavenged
On our scarce affections.
Our heart was the simple map
In the quick country of fantasies
Where time moves so fast
As if conniving with the eventuality
Of all things:
Is this not the end of God?
Such a small city.
Yet a complex spreadsheet
Like the nail wound— a rune on the palm
Of Christ which skeptic eyes seek to confirm
Before giving up on
The resurrection of crucified promises.
3.
CONTINUUM:
Were you an illusion?
I'm not getting paranoid
with English morphology—
But don't things in the l-f
Cluster fool us so smartly?
On the field of blurted stars
We wrap our bodies in mist.
But lo-ve is a weak insurance
against climate change.
Like roses on the Way
Our lobes must unfurl
At the sound of the Light.
Is there a thing
Hidden from the Truth:
She sees the nude thigh
Of the best dressed lie
And the dry hay under
The gauzy wool of dew;
No, not lo-ve not sly li-fe
And not this imminent
Lea-ving: this refraction of
Our twined stamens in the sepal
of wilted affections.
I'm leaving your heart.
Do you need a lamp
To see that?
Behold!
How do you say farewell
In the obscene dialect of silence?
Agbaakin O. Jeremiah, a Nigerian poet and a campus editor, studies law at the University of Ibadan. He was on the shortlist of the 2017 Korea-Nigeria Poetry Prize. His works have been featured on several publications.