24th Revolution around the Sun

Joshua Effiong, Nigeria

The first of every November

is a door to

a new age. Today, the door expels

me on a river bank with the sun

hanging above

my head—a replica of the day

I dragged my first

breath. Soon, a speedboat runs across

the water surface

& distort its calm—a portrait of

the chaos blooming inside me.

Every ripple

dances to the depth of my soul.

I reached into my chest and pull

out a chunk of

darkness: nights when my voice

deserted me;

nights when I offered my body to

be sanctified

by the music of the wind. It's my

twenty-fourth year on this planet

& I'm still uncovering

new layers of

myself. I begin to sing a birthday song

& the river rushes into my mouth to

cease my tongue,

trading every molecule of oxygen in

my lungs for sand and seashells. Every

new year teaches

me how to bend without breaking;

how to love myself

fervently; how to walk with my dreams

into daylight without becoming vapour.

Here, the sun

enters the mouth of the river leaving

a streak of orange

in the sky—a template for new beginnings.

Then, I collect my name into a wine glass

& pour it into the river.

Watching every consonant it possesses

begins to sink

while the vowels stay afloat. This is how

I become a melody.

Joshua Effiong, Frontier VI, is a writer and digital artist from the Örö people of Nigeria. Author of a poetry chapbook Autopsy of Things Left Unnamed(2020). His works has been published or forthcoming in 580 split, Wrongdoing Magazine, Vast Literary Press, Native Skin and elsewhere.