Poetry: DEPARTURE by Romeo Oriogun

i do know about the hate that sinks a name

& turns water into homes eating boys

& i cannot speak because my mouth is a grave

my father’s ghost roasted a boy found in the hands of another boy

& his ashes look like the sun dying on my skin

& every day nails are passed as praises as heroes

riding bodies into pain as Facebook posts

opening bodies into fields eaten by locusts

i was born to be darkness hiding under a cave

& i know the weight of exile in a body

the origin of bodies looking into faces

with gratitude  leaving a part of them

in bistros  to forget  how they prayed

to the winds to ferry them over waves

the maestro said all art is full of departure

i was born to hold a boy on a bus station

shake him loose  a house leaking memories

& tell him go  run   bleed

into a language that knows the meaning of freedom

tired of running  of biting into oranges

i open my body into pain & bring out your words

faggot  sin  bones waiting for the tongue of fire

houses waiting for the lynching of rain

& i let them slice me  burn me

i was born into a war  my God’s duty is to hide

the honey dripping from my mouth

& i write the names of lovers leaving into sand

i let it grow on their tongues so they won’t forget

how they lived in the dark before finding Agadez

pathway to road across the sea

i worship the day because it survived the night

& i’m in a bus station

saying bye to boys searching for cities

where they can hold hands & walk on beaches

& i know what it means to live here

with words invented for hate   with wounds asked to be silent

& when they leave i want to whisper into ears

filled with dunes of the desert

do not forget i still live here

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Read: KUMBAYA by Romeo Oriogun here