Find me in the rainforest of the world’s ecosystem.
My face is a shallow river of visible blushes and wrinkles,
When I try not to unleash the fire heating up my soul.
Do not be misled by my snail— the secrets in my shell
Are bigger than my mother’s potbelly when she conceived of me,
So, do not misconceive me—
These mysteries morph like a fetus.
I stomach a python of fearsome strikes for peace to slither.
The world is burning in enough fire of war yet to die out—
I must not add more fuel, but I beseech you
Not to narrate my survival
If you do not burn in the same fire with me,
Merry with me, share farewells with me.
I’m standing at my numb corner of melancholy,
If you do not think, that hiding yourself
In the glass door of your mouth is safer than spilling flames,
Unless you can assure me that there is a race I can run
Away from myself, exorcise me of these smokes
My burning pot wants to uncover before your nose.
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Tukur Ridwan is a Nigerian poet and professional freelance writer whose poetry explores existential vastness and finiteness, sanctity and vanity. His poems appear in various literary journals, including Pensive Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, and The African Writers Magazine. He also (co-)authored three poetry chapbooks and collaborated with SprinNG Writing Fellowship as a mentor on poetry since 2020.
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Read – Sages in Exile – A Poem by Takunda G Nyika – Zimbabwe
