God's Easiest Wrath is Absence
By Adedayo Agarau
I know this because I live in a body that is drowning
I spend eternity learning where birds sleep, sky or
nests, the road to peace is where a bullet splits open
the cerebellum of my friend, my mother throws herself
at the train, they say it is madness, I say it is knowing
when to jump into a fire, and when to jump out
a cigarette burns out and the flames go home
a man sings to his children, I imagine my father
distant like cities buried inside a throat
we still will be drowning if the earth is turned upside down
I take the first pill today, the doctor says my dreams
will come like a stranger, I scream out of a dream again,
my body a bead of sweat, my body a bead of sweat
in the last poem I wrote, I killed a bird, in this one,
an owl tells me my name, says the street where I grew
a bean, my first crush turned a coin into a cowry
I breathe into this room, my bed warm enough to bless an egg
I dream of my mother throwing herself at a train, her head
a blend of chronic depression, my overwhelmed sister shouts, oh my God,
oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God
again, a drunk father didn’t make it home early
Adedayo Agarau is an editor, poet, and the author of The Arrival of Rain. His Chapbook, The Origin of Names selected by Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes for the New Generation African Poet, is forthcoming in July. He is the Assistant Editor at Animal Heart Press, Contributing Editor at Barren Magazine, and a poetry reader at Feral Press.