Dazed. Red-eyed, nails digging into soft palms, and 5’6 of me, shrinking like that body wasn’t mine. Towering over stiff bloated body that was once tight skin, doting eyes, large palms and soft lips, I’d ask a million questions but let’s start with a few…
What am I to do with all this anger? All this confusion, my love, all this hate?
You used to like talking a lot, about how you’ve grown endearing to my perfect edges, like your Adam’s clay were made for my Eve’s curves, how my lips rolled off words that never left the confines of your thoughts, right until you were too you to admit my heart was a tad too warm to accommodate all your wrongs…
Stand up now and speak to me!
Tell me I’ve gone on too naive, falling for someone who only thought I’d bring some light into all those paintings on his canvas.
Get up from that pure-white coffin and speak to me! I’ve been waiting since before I was born, overturning all your words, finding the right combination of anger, courage and hurt to push myself out the door and never return. So, tell me how ridiculous it was, riding me like a dim-witted donkey.
Stand up, and speak to me! You can’t keep me locked in here forever.
About the Poet:
Azeezat Olayinka Okunlola is a Nigerian writer, poet, blogger, columnist and content strategist who has been shortlisted for the Glass Door Poetically Written Prose Contest and featured in Kalahari Review, AFAS Review (Issue 2), Pin Quarterly Journal (Issue 8), The Year of the Poet (Inner Child Press Magazine), Save Our Future Initiative, and Communicator’s League Journal, amongst other literary awards. She is the author of a striking novella- Red Fuse Trip.