Hypochondria
Salawu Olajide
I am afraid of what my tongue would become
in this song because the world is full
of requiem. I am afraid of what my lung
would become because every ghost carries a
microbe face and the trees that grow inside
me host a colony of bats nursing their distant
cousins. Tonight, the moon hangs like half broken
face of God and I am watching the sky for miracle
of birds that do not bear songs of sorrow.
I am back to the beginning of the dream
where my mother tells me that eyes do
carry a mirage when throat becomes
a desert and water is the only song of love.
I am back at the bank of the river where my shadow
spreads on water without getting drowned.
Salawu Olajide‘s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Glass, Salt Hill, New Orleans Review, Paragrammer, Tradition, Rattle, Saraba, Miracle Monocle, Forbidden Peak Press, Soul-Lit and so on. He is also the author of Preface for Leaving Homeland published under African Poetry Book Fund series edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. He lives in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.