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Wisdom Adediji: substance of things hoped for

substance of things hoped for

… is the substance of things hoped for,
and the evidence of things not seen.’ — Hebrew 11:1

A dove weeps on my sill,+++++with broken beak &
tattered feathers, & my pane leaks an unending song.
The remnant of everything once living in me is there,
in earth’s belly,+++++lingering in a coffin’s mouth,+++++embalming the cold body
I used to call mother.+++++Her soul deserted her.+++++& dad again
became my greatest fear –a brown teeth holding the palm of a cigarette,
with a bottle of stout,+++++and swollen red eyes leaking tears–+++++an embodiment of grief.
I try not to think of the pieces of fear scribbling
dead things in my dreams, like those dry bones Elijah brought back to life;
for I slept yesterday, and my hopes didn’t wake this morning/
rather I found their remains in the mouth of a country.
& like that corpse buried in our backyard, I stand still before this poem
trying to figure out why grief always chokes its fingers into every metaphor I
sprinkle on each line.+++++not even hyperbole, for grief itself is another way to
exaggerate loss. & in my country, peace is the substance of things hoped for,
but loss is the evidence of things not seen.

————
Poem: Wisdom Adediji
Image by Pexels via Pixabay

Wisdom Adediji
Wisdom Adediji
Wisdom Adediji, NGP xi, is a Nigerian genre-bending writer. His works have appeared/ forthcoming on Kalahari Review, kreative diadem, arts Longue, spill words, poemify, black boy like that, and elsewhere. He is an undergraduate at the University of Ibadan where he studies geography. Meet him on social media– Twitter: wisdomadediji / Instagram: wisdomadediji7

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