Four poems by ARIYO AHMAD

Read Time:4 Minute, 5 Second

DEPRESSION

My body is mixed with ashes of darkness

my thoughts, confined like a motionless moon

I watched the mirror of my mind; a troubled river of flocks of crocodile;

A disturbed forest of heavy thunder / I could not demystify if my life

Is straight / bend / – twisted or redundant like the lines in my palm

Nothing seems to be interesting about this place / streaming sweat creating a way

On the skin of a boy, visited by half of grief / my father went on a journey

To the sacred world / my father’s final words keeps jingling on my head

So I sank my head in my closed palm / darkness crawling around my mind

I folded my worries into a plain paper / squeezed and dirty like a ghetto / I wish I can fly it away like an aeroplane

I have seen beggars with faces paled with worries; walking barefooted like shadows of palm fronds

I cried my toxic tears out from my mind / to refresh my lungs and vein

Stretched my head into the empty atmosphere / and felt the warmth of the fresh wind /

I understand not all human on earth are happy people

For life is not always smooth like a soft snow

I looked back to where I have started the journey of my life

And told myself, coming a long way / you can’t give up like that

DROWNING

This water is heavier than my body

A storm cascading my little bird

Wrapped in a tumbling turmoil

I am looking for breath/ beneath

the mouth of this voluminous ocean

My body is walking down the ocean

I am avoided like a raging thunder

Sparkling on the heart of a lonely wall

I got despise like a tsunami swallowing town

I am drowning in the arse of a mighty ocean

My breath is fading away; a severe smoke

Evolving ruthlessly from the body of a truncated tree

This battle is demanding my shield and amour

Trailing its forbidden hand into my porous lung

This river is devouring my body as a whole

Bubbles of my voice, evaporation on a dolphins’ nostril

Hands disturbing the frequent flow of water

Eyes; a flickering river waves

I am a drowning boat; a titanic ship

Wrecking in the eyes of this Pacific Ocean

I am drowning, drowning; a small stone

GRACE

[For Idowu Abdul Rahman]

It is not by your power that the trap

Open enemy set to catch your wind

You got saved like a leaked gas

The trench dogged to capture you

A bird with wings of faith

You have slipped from their grasps

You have found solitude in the arm

Of Gods protection. You have slipped

Off from the shackles of adversity

You sat in the midst of frenemy

placing your hope on Gods security

You are a saved servant of eternal grace

You ducked series of dangerous confrontation

The claw of human on your throat

You can’t describe how you saved your breath

They are clad in the garment of deceit

Proclaiming protection to your bird

You got saved from man’s evil inclination

GOD OF POSSIBILITIES

I count my blessings one by one like the skies

Shimmering stars. Oh Lord it is numerous

Beyond counting. I fall in grace; like an autumn

Subconsciously, I raise my voice, it trembles

The waving, wandering wind

The box of your mercy is full of infinite grace

I felt my beating heart and press my vein.

Blood flowing like a clutch of sweat on skin

Your blessing is higher; a mighty tower

I have heard your voice in the wind

Travelling through my beating hearts

Of thy blessings, I seek like rain

I am found in thy grandeur and splendor

I am a lonely boy, lost in this cosmos

You lifted me above all hordes and trials

I have no home in the heart of man

You gave me home in your world of comforter

I would have become prey to evil

I would have become ashes of a burnt house.

You heal my hearts wound and

Transformed my burnt body to a smooth skin

Lord, you are God of possibilities

About the author

ARIYO AHMAD is a Nigerian poet who blends his thought into paper with his ever-flowing pen, whose inspiration is tapped from his beloved mother, and his late father who has sojourn to the land of immortality.
He graciously has his poem published and forthcoming in Kalahari review, Ninsha Art, Nnoko stories, Ebo Quill’s, African writers magazine, UpNigeria, mixed magazine, Olney magazine, Madness Musepress, Farrago magazine, Words and Whispers Journal, Kalonopia collective, Voice Lux Journal, Clay Literary, Nymphs Magazine and others
He is a favorite of Khalil Gibran and tweets @ahmad_akanni

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