PORTRAIT OF A BOY CRUSADING FOR JOY

Samuel Ajani, Nigeria

In recent months

I seek light in all places:

between the troughs and crests

of my mother's silence.

in fumes of cigarettes and weeds.

between fissures of crackling walls

& rimpling fingers.

in beads of evening tears

when I stroll around

the edge of my father's vault.

I crave more than earth can give—

my joy wants more

joy. & here is the nascence of misery

charcoaling the moon of happiness.

Who can bridge the nestling space

between desire and hope? Here, I desire

laughter bereft of the nibbles of memories,

a smile coruscating with hope

like the morning after

a dusk of cloudbursts.

I redound myself

like a denuded room—

this is how I collage hope

into palms of supplication—

how I moult desires

into mouth of prayers—

my joy,

alms for another joy.

Ajani Samuel Victor, Frontier II, is a black writer from the trenches. His work has appeared/forthcoming on Blue Marble Review, TST Review, Roughcut Press, Augment Review, and elsewhere. He was the winner of 2021 Prisoner of Love Poetry Contest.