PORTRAIT OF FADING, INTO A SONG
by Olowonjoyin Muhammed Sanni
a chord strums in my earpieces &
that’s how I know how to unwear
some memories that cliché tears
in them like tornadoes cliché havoc.
my skin, a burnable piece of grief, &
songs, fires soothing the sprouting
seeds of heaviness in the loams of
my bones. I, fettered by loneliness.
I, fettered by everything leaping for
oxygen in this poem like my mother
leapt into the hands of divorce papers
and floated away. a memory is haunted
before hibiscuses of rhythms tangle
themselves in my fading, head tilted
in disillusionment to the walls of a room
that’s familiar with the taste of ennui.
and a memory asks, are you happy now?
and I say, another
memory will fade into a song
before escaping through my mouth.
a symphony crossfades into Alan
Walker’s Faded & I become a slave to
every memory that soon fades from my
claustrophobia. oh utopia, I’m here,
where are you now?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Olowonjoyin Muhammed Sanni (he/him) studies Biochemistry at the University of Ilorin. His works have been published or forthcoming in My Woven Words anthologies, Poemify, Livina Press, Arts Lounge, Nanty Greens, in his head and elsewhere. When he’s not tracing biochemical pathways, he’s either writing, playing games, reading tweets, or thinking about making his life better. He tweets @aperse_ and on Facebook as Olówónjoyin Muhammed Sanni.
