Poetry

Ayiyi Joel: Anti-grieving

anti gravity
Image: Marek Piwnicki Unsplash (remixed)

Anti-grieving

After another poet

In this poem, no love dies
& A boy is not writing
An elegy to remember the smiles
Of his mother/flower.
Today, no child sits at the graveside
Mourning an old friend
& A mother is not silent
While her chest is a burning city.
This poem does not tell you to grieve
Or remind you of the weight of grief.
Here, a pain is a feather
& Your laughter takes the weight of iron.
So to say: I offer my fears & pain
To the zephyr/my eyes closed/
I flutter them open/& I find my glom gone.
Like this I find my body brimming with grace.
Like this, I am the night sky
My pain is the sun.

——-
Poem © Ayiyi Joel
Image: Marek Piwnicki Unsplash (remixed)

About the author

Ayiyi Joel

Ayiyi Joel is a budding poet from Edo state, Nigeria. He has works published/forthcoming on The Beatnik cowboy, Synchronized Chaos, Carthatic lit mag, poemify and elsewhere. He is Ayiyi Joel on Facebook and Instagram.

1 Comment

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  • “I am the night sky
    My pain is the sun”.
    The whole poem is lovely with apt words, but I love these lines best. It’s great.