Echoes of Silence
Makinde Adebayo Adeniyi
Curled up in bed
Caged in by the cold
Deep in reflection
Under the duvet of dread
The harmattan breeze
Whispers sombre notes
Of forlorn fears
In the slammer of my thoughts
The sun streaks in betwixt the drapes
The heat takes the garments off me
Handing fan to my guest
Silence settles
Threatening to drown me
In this darkness
The truth slaps hard
Even the wise cannot detect
The gestation of a snail in its shell
A little wisdom
A little stupidity
Safeguards survival
The cosmos, covered in crepuscule.
Bridge of Emptiness
SEGUN BANJI
At the bridge of emptiness
Heavenly gallows stood watch
At humanity’s travails
As suffer-woods blaze in the furnace of toils
Ashes of desperation scatter
Forming thick mist of pain
Hovering over all mankind
Scarring all, till it becomes her skin
The bridge of emptiness stretches on
With nowhere to seek refuge
Only echoes of haunting filled the air
Shrouding the void in enigmatic allure
Throes of previous life rendered naught
The Longing for peace,a dying ember
pierced through by shadows of despair
Dashing hopes etched on Tomorrow’s mane
At the bridge of emptiness
Anguish holds her sway
Till the Night lost her eyes
Awaiting humanity’s judgement day
Muse
Femi Olusa
I brought her a flower vase
and
a dead poet’s love verse,
a delicate mould of fine china
and
precious form of worded stanzas.
Lilies white bloom,
I stutter
Upon tongue-tied haiku.
My words fall short,
of this pretty white bloom I report,
her nectar is a lifeblood to my
hummingbird.
Filled, I serenade in chirps
of poignant refrains
for her
to be my muse
flickering at the lips
of sinking horizon,
fuelling me
with desire
between twilight
and dusk.
