By Sunday Saheed
you hate to say it, but you’re still a
stranger that looks the world from afar.
there are beautiful gallows at each piazza
that opens the route to the royal family
—this path is dubbed by belladonna &
foxglove. Tell, which step shall you take
through the wild that won’t get you
vervained & chillied like a bald warbler
at random nights where the beads on your
waist, nor the cowries shall jingle a sound
but your tongue isn’t safe, lingo rolls on
a wheel off your jaws & notes of sounds
are picked like tulips & cactuses. Brace
yourself up, wish everything you love adieu.
you’ve disked yourself out of your body,
the tunes you hum is of the west life. Your
home does not own you again, you’re but
a coiled snake in a sink that rambles words
as bubbles. Nobody hears you again,
you might just check your leg for the juice
of hemlock on your right sole & for
your left, buttercup is spilled all herein.
we don’t jeer our hands to curl up stained
fallen heroes around our cocoons. The lips
we once kiss you with, throw spits at you
now. No homecoming herein, yeah?
Sunday Saheed, the author of Rewrite the Stars, is a 17-year-old Nigerian writer, and a Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation member. He was the 1st runner-up for the Nigerian Prize for Teen Authors, 2021. His works have appeared or are forthcoming on Rough Cut Press, Salamander Ink, Aster Lit, Arts Lounge, SprinNG, Rigorous mag, Kissing Dynamite, Beatnik Cowboy, Trouvaille Review, Augment Review, Spirited Muse Press, Gyroscope, Giallo Lit, Open Skies Quarterly, Kalahari, Cajun Mutt, Open Leaf Press Review, Re Side, de Curated and others. He is also an asst. editor for The Nigeria Review (TNR). He was shortlisted for the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, 2018, The New Man Gospel Poetry Contest and BKPW Poetry Contest, 2022. He can be read on linkfly.to/sundaysaheed or reached on Instagram @poetsundaysaheed or on @sundaytsaheed on Twitter.