MARIA CRUSHES ON GABRIEL by Patron Henekou

by KREATIVE DIADEM | Mar 11, 2019 | POEMS

MARIA CRUSHES ON GABRIEL

by Patron Henekou

I dote on you so much

That

I want us to date

In the name of the scriptures.

Oh Maria, let your will be done

And we will restart the calendar.

But you know

I’m civilized now and don’t mind having

The Baby out of wedlock

Though people gossip too much these days!

Show me your virgin boobs

Oh no, no-no-no, not in their kerchief, Maria

Let’s see if they really stand with the dots straight on them.

You never believe me:

I dote on you. I dote on you.

Well you can think or believe whatever you want.

I don’t even say I am still a virgin with silicone attractions

Oh Maria, you-miss-understands-the-world, today.

It’s not a matter of “believe”. You’ve placed your doting

On the cross. Just nail the thing up:

Anything about how you feel

And please fill in the gasps with what you want from me now

Using simple punctuations and spiritual emoji!

Maria, people are waiting to re-write the scriptures.

It’s you I want:

Your lips, full, look divinely crispy and warm

I dream to wallow in your arms like ice cube in brown whisky

It’s you I want, Gabby, and not the script-mongers of holy crushes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patron Henekou writes poems and plays and co-organizes the Festival International des Lettres et des Arts (Festilarts) at Université de Lomé, Togo. He writes in French and English as well and translates. His poems have appeared in anthologies such as Palmes pour le Togo, Arbolarium, Antologia Poetica de Los Cinco Continentes, and The Best New African Poets Anthology 2017, and in poetry journals such as AFROpoésie, Revue des Citoyens des Lettres, Aquifer: The Florida Review Online, The Kalahari Review, and Better than Starbucks. His published books include a play in English, Dovlo, or A Worthless Sweat (2015) and two poetry books in French entitled Souffles d’outre-cœur (2017) and Souffles & faces (2018). Patron is the 2018 African American Fellow (now Langston Hughes Fellow) at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival in Delray, Florida.

THE MELODY IN HER PAIN OPENED ME by Patron Henekou

by KREATIVE DIADEM | Feb 4, 2019 | POEMS

THE MELODY IN HER PAIN OPENED ME

by Patron Henekou

I was there in front of her

Listening as she spoke.

The words came out free,

Unobstructed

But not smooth:

There was a faint tremolo in there

To spring the prairie in her

Smile. I sat there to

Catch the words but

Only the melody in them opened

Me and whiffed through the skin

Of my blood, like the stalks of a genocide.

Face to face first, then face to profile

her words came

With the same gloss

Like a work of art seated on a

Tanned street in the middle of

Gunshots and laughter and tears

Mixed with passionate kisses of lovers

parted in dreams of dictators.

I could see her heart run walk-walk

Then walk run-run beneath her breasts

Recounting past memories and family pains

While reaching for a word to draw her

Hope

In a sky of white clouds and

A moon laced with names of foreign lands in graffiti.

– In her office, her lips could not say my name so

She wrapped it in the pages of a hibiscus

And placed it in a poetry book inside her eyes. Run

Her left palm on the cover as if to

Take the flame in my name.

I stood and she stood with me

Now she passed through me and

Said, her eyes almost closed: how is your son, Sitou? –

I was sitting there beside her, in the restaurant

Her words stood out free,

Coated in a faint tremolo to

Spice the sun in her face. The melody in them

Opened me.

THE MELODY IN HER PAIN OPENED ME

by Patron Henekou | POEMS