REQUIEM //Poem by Arikewusola Abdul Awal_

Your love was morning dew, dear,

Caressing the petals of my heart.
Two pigeons interlocked, &
Played the game of fervour—
We crashed into nirvana.
The earth got its first scar when an Angel hied
To the heavens with a portion of its heart:
The earth swallowed you in return, &
Scarred my heart with this longing.
I did not know “till death do us apart”
Meant I vowed to live forever in saudade—
My joy strayed with you into the earth.
That night, we burned with desire, & promised

To meet in each other’s dream. & I woke
First, to tell you how in my dream
You became a firefly and led me home.
Was your dream so
Heavenly, darling,
For you not to wake again?
I mourn like the moonless sky
In its nightly cassock.
Here on the knoll, I sit lonely
And pluck a chrysanthemum
Into the broken vase of my heart

©Arikewusola Abdul Awal

Arikewusola is a young poet whose works explore social
comment, self-discovery, love, hope, spiritualism, and
more. His poems have appeared on Afritondo, Brittle
Paper, Sprinng, Poetik City Africa, Kalahari Review, Arting
Arena, Eboquills, NWF journal, Spillwords, and elsewhere.