By Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi
PROMPT—I am grateful for ...
On days when grief was so hard
to scrub off time's face,
I crawled into the mug shot
where happiness tore the cheeks
to a smile of clenching teeth
caging the grief on the inside
the tongue coating it to shimmer
like a brand-new ambulance.
We carried our dead on the inside
and rattled our prints on the shores of life
hoping to get there on time.
I didn't crawl into the photo on time.
I didn't smile on time.
But the image caught my lips curl a surf
at the edges. The image caught my lips curl.
Oladejo Abdullah Feranmi is a DVM student at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Pursuing his enthusiasm for poetry, he has his works published/forthcoming in Poet's choice, Echo mag, and a few more. He reads at the sea glass lit and edits for the incognito.