desideratum
—for A.

we are nomads: refugees displaced
by the cartography of becoming,

striding uncharted courses with
handfuls of hope for sustenance.

before refugees, we were residents
with claims to home. but

home was the nirvana we never had:
a cubicle crammed with broken things.

so, we yearned for air to ease stifled lungs
& colors that affirmed sight.

ambition is the compass steering us through
scorch & deafening wind. the dust on

our feet a reminder of the distance
we’ve covered & a clue to trudge on,

till we find a settlement with myrtles
& scions, under white clouds.




roulette

tonight, the breeze lulls fatigued souls
from the toils of a frenetic day.

& nature’s doting palm shuts eyes
away from the pestilence slithering

under the moon’s faint halogen.
but its fingers do not reach our troubled minds;

nor comfort the Norwegian blaring her misery
in my ears; nor hush the crickets’ endless requiem.

tonight, our demons pervade the dark
like the incense from my neighbor’s nicotine,

brewing mischief as grave as the news
of the grocery store looted last night.

& somewhere in this night, Èṣù will come
for a calabash at the crossroad &

a man’s life would become a loose canoe,
drifting off the shores of the living.

to live through the dark is to walk un(h)armed
through the valley of the shadow of death.

so, we hold a devotion,
each morning we survive the night.



* Èṣù is the Yoruba deity of crossroads, chance, and cosmic balance, who mediates between humans and the divine.