Abdulkareem Abdulkareem
The thrednody of a boy
Somewhere, a boy, splintered by loss,
life stutters in his mouth, his words falls off
his mouth like glass & it breaks into shards.
somewhere, a flower is a symbol of love,
that a heart pulls towards another like a
magnet & in another, it grows after dirges
falls like a dead man off the cliff of a mouth.
This boy I’m becoming, who munches grief like
a big belly burger, this boy, who sings an hymn
of broken songs. On rainy days, I stretch my hands
into the rain, collect Its water to wet the Sahara of
my throat & when I gulp, it tastes saline like my
tears, the one I offer like a daily sacrifice to my
face. Trace my footpaths & it will lead you into
an oasis in the middle of a desert. This is the threnody
of a boy who is an Ash tree in the Autumn of his griefs,
this boy who nurses the crevice of his heart of stone.
This boy whose grief is only punctuated with
commas, so it can continue in the later lines of his body.
life stutters in his mouth, his words falls off
his mouth like glass & it breaks into shards.
somewhere, a flower is a symbol of love,
that a heart pulls towards another like a
magnet & in another, it grows after dirges
falls like a dead man off the cliff of a mouth.
This boy I’m becoming, who munches grief like
a big belly burger, this boy, who sings an hymn
of broken songs. On rainy days, I stretch my hands
into the rain, collect Its water to wet the Sahara of
my throat & when I gulp, it tastes saline like my
tears, the one I offer like a daily sacrifice to my
face. Trace my footpaths & it will lead you into
an oasis in the middle of a desert. This is the threnody
of a boy who is an Ash tree in the Autumn of his griefs,
this boy who nurses the crevice of his heart of stone.
This boy whose grief is only punctuated with
commas, so it can continue in the later lines of his body.
Biography
Abdulkareem Abdulkareem (Panini) (he/him) is a Nigerian writer, who studies Linguistics at the University of Ilorin in Ilorin, Nigeria. His works have appeared/are forthcoming in ARTmosterrific, Shallow Tales Review, Brittle Papers, Ice Floe, Rigorous, Second Chance Lit, Olney, Ninshar.art, Windows Facing Windows Review, Sledgehammer lit, Salamander Ink, Afro Literary Magazine, Lunaris Review, Kissing Dynamite & elsewhere. He tweets @panini500bc and can be found on Instagram @panini_500bc and Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100007303118317
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