i drew a smiley face on a blank page & gave it legs / there is no wind strong enough to destroy something that only exists on paper / there is no hurt powerful enough to tear

apart this cage I call a body / i have made this shell for you with my hands / & maybe death only comes when our souls outgrow our bodies / like hermit crabs — we drop

this shell & move over to what lies after the face at the window comes for us / they say we are all tender & bloody inside / but i ask why i still fall apart when touched the wrong

way / there is not enough air to carry me through life / my grandfather who died before i was born — told me that death is real / my grandfather who died before i was born told

me nothing / my arms feel like paddles as i work my way towards you in this storm / & : i maybe only want someone to say i really love you / & maybe someone to say : it's okay

if you don't love me back right now with a hand on my thigh i'll still love you / while i gather supplies that'll fit into a paper bag & a leather sheath / & maybe we both know

that the surest escape is going to sleep & forgetting how to wake up / we can be meaningful & still dead / if you look hard enough — your sleeping father becomes

a breathing corpse too / if you look hard enough — your sleeping father becomes a dreaming corpse too / i tried to cry last night but the tears had not yet known

condensation / no one can kiss you wrong if you're dead / funny how we're all given names we don't get to spell out on our gravestones at the end / they say dust to dust

but no one explains that all the weight in our bones goes back into the wind from the moment we draw our last breaths / there is no second chance for a man that dies

before his offspring / there is no second chance for a child that dies before his father / maybe death is just learning & sharing a new language with ghosts / maybe death is

just a new language.

© 2024 Temidayo Okun