OLADEJO ABDULLAH FERANMI
Never in shock, I chorus the anthem electric.
Morals; Stand to the anthem and sit on your feet
to a passerby’s coffin. Most days all my legs do is tremble
or trample or tremble for the weight that rested on,
my heart is like the white flag aglow in the shine of the anthem,
like the coffin that carries someone dead on the inside
Most days, my body is an ambulance trying to push past its way
on time. I didn’t get here on time. The windshield was fogged
with whatever white that painted the flag
and whatever red that dripped from it, that got its source
from the broken loin that lined the gut of the people
who forgot to breathe safety like prayers, in a home,
In a country where safety isn’t safe. This poem
is to their pure selves, that played in the garden of the skies at night
peeping in every star. Our cars drunk on the governmental death wish,
zooming to take us to them, aglow. Like the white flag.
This poem is for you. Let both ears be the hardcover
and anything between be its pages in hopes you might see your fears
before you disappear to where your legs don’t tremble or trample or tremble
to anthems. To where you have a million legs to do it. For you. A passerby.
Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi is a Veterinary medicine student at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, a submission reader at the sea glass literary magazine, and an editor for the incognito press. Pursuing his enthusiasm for poetry, He has his works published in Poet’s Choice, Brave Voices Magazine, and a few more. He tweets from;@OladejoAFeranmi