Poetry For A Boy Who Sweats To The Word Broken

December 7, 2022

i begin this poem, silvered-strewn,
as a feverish butterfly breaking wings
into two vertically opposite angles.

[â] softens its grip on the vertex, frail
as summer frocks, and sews me into
what seems like a quranic chapter

rewritten. here, i bypassed
starting a chapter with Allah’s name,
and began surah fatiah from walā dālin.

i have grown too scared of divergence,
a bougainvillea-colored sky moving me
to what seems like a song opening

for me and closing on me—little sighs
[b] undresses me into a hebrew tongue
where i find myself more concerned about

the revelation than the genesis. you
say all i care about is how it ends:
these characters trembling in my voice,

grey-haired, like Mom. embroidery of
a new name, because why not? i feel
i need something more specific, that

details me as a whole — like broken
(which has appeared more times in my
history than my age) the first time the world

creaked open for me from my mom’s
womb, i (broke) into tears, all soft vowels.
the first time i brought my feet to kiss

the land, it withdrew from me like
an echo. and there, i (broke) two bones.
this time, i’m writing this poem because

it’s the only way to be holy to god, clean
like a homeless wind. because. i’ve
(broken) all the prayers that made me.

Saheed SundaySunday T. Saheed is a Hilltop Creative Arts Foundation member. His works have appeared or are forthcoming on Brittle Paper, Rough Cut Press, Temz Review and others. Reach him on Instagram @poetsundaysaheed

 

 

Featured Image by Altin Ferreira on Unsplash

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