the stars, they sing their glitter into a boy, & all he could remember
was a bullet weaving his father’s name from his chest. preserving
the darkness so we could enter memories and not become water.
everything in memory is water, except the exit of a loved one. the
song in a vine, a blessing for all the days of drought. listen to the
violins as they play—there is no death that doesn’t come in music.
bodies dance to it & sleep on while the great orchestra plays. there
is music everywhere: in the open graveyard outside my window, in
a country’s anthem that births a war into my hands, in the voices of
abducted school children forgetting the sunlight in their mothers’
voices. i looked at the sunlight in their voice and nothing in it is
bright enough to hold a miracle. i pray out a river with dead fish,
torn nets filtering out the country 's gore.
i gaze at the mirror and 1967 waves back at
me, showing me how to sprout out of a rot. i wilt toward love
between an ocean and its thirst, crooked joy–a starburst of
running shadows. i believe in my country’s gore & what it
has written out of mercy, but nothing made out of mercy
rehearses the language of filth.
we will be in our longing
shaping this ache for a grisaille; we will not become
carcass, despite our bodies at gunpoint, despite the elegy
in our lungs. again i shape this angst for paintbrush, to
see you once again the colours of my ruin.
Henry Opeyemi, NGP XIV, is a creative writer and poet, who wants to someday sell out the 02 Arena as a performance poet. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks ‘Autopsy of Old Fractured Wounds’ (Ghost City Press 2024) and ‘The Volume of Constant Screams’ (Cat Courtyard Press 2025). His work has appeared in Poetry Column–NND, One Poem Only, The Primer, Ghost City Press Penned In Rage Literary Magazine and elsewhere. He was awarded the 2025 poet of the year at Rumbling Thoughts Literary Community. When he is not writing, he is teaching hearing impaired kids how to play chess. He can be found on X @PHO757 and on Instagram @henryopeyemi_