For a decade I’ve loved you with the ardour of a dying star
And everytime I went out to look for a poem it was your name
I whispered in unsight
Before sleep takes me where dreams are kinder
I’ve spoken our evolution into a yawn as soft as we’ve spoken to each other
Across a chasm of waking stars.
I’ll find you when the sun empties of all quarrel, a husk but I’ll find you
To fill with the lettered dust of heaven, to crown with a wig of clouds
I’ve hidden for you across flights
And maybe you’ll have me if you’re waiting at that place you speak to me
Every solstice and we’ll at last not be afraid of whirling portals
And dissolving gas
And in a child’s tale of hope for what would they be without it?
I shoot after you across their eyeballs panting and burning out in squealing joy
For another decade, for I’ve loved you.
—
Read – Psalms of Youth – A Poem by Odirile Aubrey, Botswana
Isaac Kilibwa is a lover of poetry from Kenya. His poems have appeared in Brittle Paper’s 2023 Festive Anthology Vol. 2, Mystery Publishers’ 2023 Strange Water anthology, Hawakal’s 2023 Wives anthology, and Mukana Press’ much-acclaimed 2022 Old Love Skin anthology. When not writing, he teaches in Vihiga.
