DECEIT by Sulola Imran Abiola
OCTOBER LOVE SONG by Leela Raj-Sankar
halloween, we walked home after
midnight, our hearts ironed to perfection on
frilled sleeves. the cold seeping in through our
thin polyester dresses,
i’m thinking, your costume,
my pillowcase,
the chocolate bar we shared
on the street corner. halloween,
the sky spilled diamonds over the
horizon and in our desperation we prayed
to a god neither of us
wanted to believe in. it’s a strange time
for a love poem, i know, but
last week i imagined tasting
your laughter on my
cut-up tongue. we don’t
have much longer until
the sun rises again, but i’d stay
in this twilight, if you’d
let me. is there
something on fire inside your chest?
the next doorbell says, but i think
they’ve got it wrong: halloween,
we were storm chasers trying
to become the storm. these hands
tested fate, your eyelids
fluttering and head thrown back in laughter–
this dream that pulls me into its arms
and refuses to let go. (you gave me
too much. you didn’t give me
enough.) but you gave me this and i want to be let in
tomorrow. i don’t want to
have to give it up. halloween,
arms and ribs and teeth and cold sweat waking up
in the middle of the night still thinking. the repetition. the
afternoon light peeking through the curtains, wondering if
i’ll see you again. wondering if my mother would be proud of me,
of the ghost i’ve become, trying to trap sand in
a sieve and forget that pain has
the same name whatever you decide to do with
your hands. i think you loved me, i do, but
it wasn’t in a way i can understand.
above us, the clocks were striking our final hour.
Leela Raj-Sankar is a teenage poet from Phoenix, AZ. In addition to writing, she loves iced coffee, painting, and singing, in no particular order. You can find more of her work in released and upcoming issues of Burning Jade Literary & Arts Magazine, Perhappened Magazine, Ex/Post Magazine, and Analogies & Allegories Literary Magazine as well as on her blog at https://wildflower-of-the-sea.tumblr.com/
Sulola Imran Abiola is a native of Oyo state in his early 20s and an aspirant of one of the prestigious universities, a poet & a poetographer, a public servant, a lover of arts and an optimist who believes breakthrough in every life-sniffing situation.Born and bred in the bustling city of Lagos state. He writes across all themes. His work is forthcoming in The Quills, Writenowlit, Undivided magazine and several other magazines. He writes & savors the sound of phone shutters from the state of Osun.