Mohammed Sanni Olowojoyin
Like every burning image asks for water,
He asks why everything dear to him evades
His touch and become memories. Smoke
Gobbling the wind — blinding chlorophylls.
He, a newly birthed line in another poem
About to fall. He, a fracas. Something about
Sisyphus. A doorway of ghosts opening into
Another doorway of ghosts. Mirrors in mirror
Like we find emptiness here in search of calm
Or waters. How once, we reached it & it became
Too little. Like dreams unable to quench a thirst
Or fire, or war. So here’s where he begins with
A prayer before another shooting star puts
Another angel to sleep. The way we beseech
Mercies and the sands anger at our presence.
Say here are souls caked with desolation. Talons
Of memories biting deep. Hypothermia of loss.
I’ve been told in a version of grief that every
Lost thing here appears in the alternate of this
Universe alive. And there, I’ll be the lost one.
So, I write us into poems. To a place where
Every lost thing is rediscovered.
Muhammed Olowonjoyin [TPC III] is a Nigerian poet. Winner of the 2023 The Dawn Prize for Poetry, his poems have featured or are forthcoming in Best Small Fictions, Olney Magazine, QAE Journal, Gutter Magazine, Pepper Coast Lit. Stanchion, Nigeria Newsdirect, Brittle Paper, The Sunlight Press, and elsewhere. A Best of The Net nominee, he tweets @APerSe_.