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‘I’M ON A HIATUS FOR PSALMS‘ / ‘FURLONG‘ / ‘ON DAYS WHEN THE AIR IS GRIEF‘ / ‘TO KISS ATAVISM‘ / ‘EXILE’ | five poems by Olayioye Paul Bamidele

Photo by Ebuka Onyewuchi: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-man-covering-face-with-hand-5889715/

Read Time:4 Minute, 14 Second
i’m on a hiatus for psalms
between my guardian & i is a chasm. 
the type that reckons you as rebellious, 
dwindling in revolt. early morning, 
our lips resurrect to a tempest, babbling 
arrows buffeting thunders. i don't know 
if that's how a florist tends a flower; how
a gardener whittles the hedge of a plant
to create a rhythm—a well-trimmed frontline, 
magneting eyes. neither do i know how
a lad is stretched to stripling, & then, to 
adulthood. here, i only know the psalm 
of abuse. here, the only ode is a receding 
of insult. instead of pillows, my guardian 
uses a slab, nets it on my nape & calls it
discipline. yet, that same night, cracks open—
like an egg—a psalm with my name. but
those nights, sleep always outwits these psalms 
& fills my eyes with the night's sonorous music. 
at least, it's the way it ought to be. at least, this
poem is meant to tell how the two of us are 
crossroads, same with our own singing. 

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