Poetry

Georgie Pauwels photo

By

Ifeoluwa Ayandele

Stitching Home

On the swing, east turned west &

I watched you with winning wonder.

We were free, catching the wind

in our ballooned cheeks, running after grasshoppers

on the playground and flying the twin kites.

& we didn’t think the world had a bomb

in her ballooned cheeks. We didn’t have

to pick the broken body of your sister under

the rumbles of the broken bridge. & mom didn’t have

to live with a gun under her pillow.

& we smiled, holding on to hugs, kissing each other

but stitching home with flying bullets

from airplanes & sucking the bud of broken home

in your tongues.

Leaving Home

When dad left his glasses on the table

and bade home goodbye, I saw hope

walking out through our front door.

and I saw my mistakes on his glasses.

But mom saw something else,

she saw a man who couldn’t

face love,

who shut his shutters and walked

away from the corridors of home.

Ifeoluwa Ayandele

Ifeoluwa Ayandele studied at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming at Kin Poetry Journal, Brittle Paper, African Writer, Kalahari Review and Best “New” African Poets 2017 Anthology.