when god walked / adedayo agarau

away / through the permissible cosmos in my father’s / body

no one knew sweat pores were exit holes / or that flowers

are weeds that only grow when dirges fall / off someone’s lips

like rain / like the body of my father falling freely / from the sky

in an assembly of angels / when fire is coursed through a body / it

becomes a country set on the hills / & these can be said about absence:

-       god wears a broken crown

-       the sun is my mother’s grief / strong / delicate & lonely

-       stars when fallen shall never become whole again

-       healing is never a thing found in prayers / my mother’s

song mocked the towers of babel / who cares to see a thing

afraid of ghosts / who cares about a city set ablaze / in the sky

the moon sits alone as if asking my father where he is from

Adedayo Agarau is a Nigerian documentary photographer and poet. He explores the concept of godhood, boyhood, distance and absence. His poems have been featured on Kalahari, Brittle Paper, Gaze Mag, Allegro, Obra Artifact, Praxis Magazine, African Writer, Click 042, One Jarcar Press, Expound Magazine, Geometry and elsewhere.