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Loneliness

By Ojo Olumide Emmanuel

PROMPT — Who am I today?

Dear loneliness,


I lost my first tooth when I first learned how to stretch my cheeks in smiles & laughter. Mom said I was growing while she too, was aging.

A boy fell off a tree in my neighborhood and broke his spinal cord.

His body crawled into a river and sank, only to realize he was my swimming partner.

My heart still rumbles with tension, I stopped swimming. I miss him. I miss the river that held our memories. I miss how we swam in its body.


I stare at my ceiling, my thought journeys to the twinkling stars in my heart. My head quakes and the memories snail in my whole.


I'm alone like a butterfly stripped of its wings and beauty.

In this room of dark thoughts, I become a kettle that oozes bitter coffees of aloneness in cups.

 

Ojo Olumide Emmanuel is a Poet and editor. His works have appeared and are forthcoming at Feral, Quills, PIN, TBR, WRR, and elsewhere. He is a fellow of SprinNG Writers Fellowship. He writes from Nigeria.

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