For Ahmad Aishah
The bluest sky holds our scents when
they wrap us in their embrace. I peek
through the bountiful doors of the sky
& your eyes spread forth like heaven.
let us paint our names on the starry
skies. let’s begin like ellipsis & join into
poems. sometimes, I speak to myself
in dreams, hoping you’ll sprout—weaving
some handful of smile
yesternight, the moon where
we sit to tell fairy-tales—your eyes
embedding into mine, mine reflecting
yours like two stars having a love
conversation, mourns your absence.
maybe the moon actually mourns.
maybe it doesn’t. maybe it ascends
into the snows that join us like icicles
during winter. I breathe you in my
poems & they remind me of how much
light you are to the breath of dust.
left to right, every stanza splintered light.
O beloved, I heard your voice wrapped in
Davido’s music when my neighbor played
“Aye O baby you go killi somebody, they say
love is fine o but I dey see am for ur eye o”
& i traced my body to the moment when I
looked at you & saw myself sinking
into you, and you looked back at me and saw
yourself. maybe this poem is a staircase for
me to find God. they say a true lover’s art is
God’s temple. so I chose to follow your
mustaqeem so I could find God.
Mustaqeem is the Islamic term for straight path.
Adamu Yahuza Abdullahi is a budding poet from Kwara State, Nigeria. He is a lover of books and the people who write them. When he is not reading, he is writing & when he is not writing he is stuck in the day dreams of kemanji—his hometown, transforming into one of the renowned cities of the world. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in national & international journals like Synchronized Chaos, Angel Rust, Kalahari review, Arts Lounge, Teenlit Journal, Pine Cone Review, Mixed Magazine, Borgu Book Club and elsewhere.
Featured image Derek Thomson
