by T.W. Selvey
A Tongue is a Petal
Let all the art drop from your mouth, save
it, from the gnawing of the dark. let your
hands scratch though your lungs
bring out the rotten flowers.
allow your throat, learn new thirsts. this hunger
might break your bones, let it. your veins
will burst, let them. if they ask you where
your pieces are walk them
through a path of blood, let them break their
eyes searching for a whole being in shattered
pieces of a mirror. If they ask why your
story is not complete open your mouth and
let all the art drop from it then you will
find your body is a mosaic of
endless words.
Ayomide ‘Wes’ Oriolowo is a Nigerian poet and essayist, a lover of God and Counterintuitive thinking. His poem was longlisted for the Syncity NG’s ‘Poetry in Times of Corona’ 2020 Anthology. Some of his works are featured or forthcoming in Praxis Mag, Odd Magazine, Kalahari Reviews, Mineral Lit Mag, The African Writers and elsewhere. He is a final year student of Bowen University and currently lives in Ibadan. You can reach out to him on Instagram and Twitter @ayo_soars.
Recently, T.W. Selvey’s writing has appeared in The Shore, Detritus, Harsh, Cav Mag, Grody Mag and Misery Tourism. T.W. tweets sporadically @docu_dement, and is the proud curator of a haphazardly curated blog, www.documentdement.com.