Salam Wosu
Elegy for the Need to Sway
because whatever saves us now will kill us later
because water, poetry, love
because there is much talk of tomorrow, today is crying on yesterday’s shoulders
because abortion, war, climate change
because I am idle I die in song
because life is worth a living I can’t afford it
because how else does a body survive water before rescue / swim or sway?
I only listen to songs that sound like water / Fonsi sings in a
rhythm that swims around / I feel like prey / like poetry / finding myself by
getting lost in a strange language
because the bedroom is too small for my dreams / quietly I sculpt
a castle out of air
because I need saving / because I will need a place to die in someday
because I watch a woman give birth & I know that death is better than dying
& I can’t help but think how love is sado-masochist
Love is something to do before the war starts
Love brings the war / the fire / & everyone wants
to die for love rather than live / rather than sway
& I have no experience in death nor have I a boat to sway through life
because I have no God / or rather no prayer / or maybe because I rather sway than pray
because whatever saves me now will kill me later
How does a body survive a song that never ends?
Sway.
because water, poetry, love
because there is much talk of tomorrow, today is crying on yesterday’s shoulders
because abortion, war, climate change
because I am idle I die in song
because life is worth a living I can’t afford it
because how else does a body survive water before rescue / swim or sway?
I only listen to songs that sound like water / Fonsi sings in a
rhythm that swims around / I feel like prey / like poetry / finding myself by
getting lost in a strange language
because the bedroom is too small for my dreams / quietly I sculpt
a castle out of air
because I need saving / because I will need a place to die in someday
because I watch a woman give birth & I know that death is better than dying
& I can’t help but think how love is sado-masochist
Love is something to do before the war starts
Love brings the war / the fire / & everyone wants
to die for love rather than live / rather than sway
& I have no experience in death nor have I a boat to sway through life
because I have no God / or rather no prayer / or maybe because I rather sway than pray
because whatever saves me now will kill me later
How does a body survive a song that never ends?
Sway.
Biography
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Salam Wosu (he/him), a poet and aspiring novelist, is a Chemical Engineering student from Nigeria. His works interrogate grief, depression, love, anti-chauvinism and sexuality. He was shortlisted for the Korean Nigerian Poetry Fiesta Award 2017 & 2019. His works are in or forthcoming in Glass Poetry Press, Kissing Dynamite, Dream Noir, PIN, RIC Journal and Mounting the Moon (anthology of queer Nigerian poems). He is @salam_wosu on Twitter, Instagram.
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