By: Abubakar Auwal

ecdysis of green flowers

finalist BKPW Contest
here— an image of motherland is tuned from the rhythm
of our greened fur; a convolvulus one, taking flight
to where we plant our names, flower the smiles of gods & metaphors
into anything that plant home in the garden of chrysanthemum.
in another poem; i wafted my bones into an enigma of broken nights
waxed on the pulpit, father buried his teeth in loopholes of an early
bee— the bee is a greened flower, wearing mother’s face
like a butterfly, water-flying to name the colors of dark metaphors.
here— boys & girls with broken teeth are scarfed into the cottage of
shattered dreams, like headless flowers swallowing the colors of death.
i’m remembering the year mother held the face of gods on her palms,
rewriting her womb for the birth of another god; a green one
to facebook her heart & unify her scrunching face
in between the lullabies of green clouds— green & white fur, flapping
in the constitution of the ashes we daily inhale
to sing the anthem of men metamorphosed into the shrine.
father thought us to live, to heart, to sun, to day, to night
and gather the debris of our broken names, together.
to tweet the route of a green home; i cultured my breath into appendages
of memories, morphing between the whispers of butterflies
like the wind translating our names into ecdysis of green flowers.
i engraved my ribs to learn the language of everything green.
tonight; this poem fly to home a greened dove, vanishing between
the science of a boy learning the lunatic language of desert & men.

ANOTHER TITLE FOR BOYS IN THE CEMETERY

When mother grew her first tooth/ father was decade away from the age of men. // I ask if men can be gods/ or gods to be men/ maybe;// my mother would’ve cupped her grief/& named a peace behind the tears/ of the baby she gave to departure. // I versed this poem/ from the heart that sense the weight of grief// the heart that lost love at puerile days/ & the heart that was made from broken rhythm. // in another title this boy was fatherless, motherless & famililess/ like one buried on the heart of death. or the other one that find earth in the street of cockroach city.// & find himself caged,/ thought how to beg for bread/ from age-mate dressed to school/ or the other one calculating the formula in physics// or the other one searching for the laws in chemistry/ when sipping fire from the cup of flames.// this is another title for boys/ in the cemetery of dogs/ & here I prays/ father(s) should never again sold our future in the name of knowledge.

pilgrim of survival

far, singing into broken night
my sister darted herself into broken syllables
of fire. i sing her
from the intoxicating heaven
beside her lips.
she’s a dead butterfly, watering her ribs
into a journeying storm
of mud, of rain
& tears that gauge
the roses on her cheeks.
beside this poem, she lives
thousand times to plant her tooth
on the face of god, of you, of me
& the sermons of what you puzzled the earth with.
after this poem, i’m wrapped to dictate
the chuckles in her bones.
she’s eye goddess to how the
exasperated boreholes burdened
with the anthem of pain that
sings me to rain the earth. justice earthquake.
a soul like her, equal yours. her laughter sized
the smile of your lord. i don’t know if
you truly knows that we both
share the same wind. we breathe the gravity
of every physic our bones can solve
& let the theories pounced on the belly of wormhole.
mother victimized her fading dreams, too.
father murdered them. for sure she may blessed this poem
with the colors of her dream learning to find
cottage in between the walls that universe her lad
with the study of suicide as she boiled silence
from the pot that burnt down, the pilgrim of justice.

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Abubakar Auwal is an award-winning author of Portrait Of gods As Metaphors; 1st runner up Nigeria Prize for Teen Authors (Poetry, 2024). He was the winner of Splendors of Dawn Poetry and Short Story Competition (February-April, 2023), finalist BPKW Poetry Contest, NYTH Poetry Contest, & longlist Brigitte Poirson Poetry Prize, shortlist Arting Arena Poetry Chapbook Contest and others.