‘bodies’ by Iliya Kambai Dennis

Narcissus and Echo
by Francesca Leader

bodies

question I

what are bodies made of?

hypothesis test #1  

in the beginning, a body – celestial 
formed bodies from another, say, [word]
or simply put it this way: let there be
light
water
wind
fire
and dust.
then, a body of dust formed adam.
and a body of bone formed eve.

question II:

how can a body wear another body?

hypothesis test #2

depression is a body of thoughts
it wears fire and wind and water.
no light. light has nothing to do with
a body of darkness;
sometimes, depression wears my body like a coat
clenched by water, driven by wind
and dust await its turn 
to swallow her gleaming pale skin.

question III:

how can bodies be defined?

hypothesis test #3

physics test:

i. a rigid body is an idealization of a solid body
[rocks, ice, blocks, pendulum bulb, etcetera
ii. bodies are collection of atoms, like poems
collecting debris of my mind into a body of pages
iii. a moving body will keep moving; forming new bodies
until it falls in a body of water, or stopped by a body of wind.

facts: anything made of molecule is a body.


Iliya Kambai Dennis hails from Kaduna state, Nigeria. A graduate of Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto. Iliya is passionate about writing and sees writing as an art that heals. His works have appeared on Serotonin, Youth Shades Magazine, Afreecan Read, Praxis Magazine, African Writers, The African Writers Review, and elsewhere. He is the author of Songs We Sing Before We Sleep. When he is not eating rice (love of his life) or drinking coffee, he is either writing, reading or watching movies. He tweets via @iliyakambai.


Francesca Leader’s parents met at RISD in the 1970s, moved to Montana, and had a child, who reversed their cross-country migration, and is now a self-taught artist who lives in Northern Virginia.