Poetry

C&D photo

By

Olaposi W Halim

A Youth And His Death

dyed cotton of dust

swam after the vehicle

that zoomed past in the

fury of transience

swept a youth to his

judgment…

a blossoming petal of

May punctured by

a rusted spike–

those athletic limbs soon

scattered

into lusterless pieces

of impassioned gory

breastfed minutes ago,

fresh,

as the saplings of

purple dawns;

upon whose arms

sprawled the opaque

glimpses of tomorrow

now lay under the ruins,

c r u s h e d…

blood.

through broken veins, gushed

as friends fled into shrubs

to conceal grinning treachery,

sympathy staring

at their backs aloof–

did men of deeper eyes

not say life

‘volves round the vainest vanity?

men maintaining

disquieted orders

solely sent rataplans

of curses after the vehicle:

bullets are saved for the

seige of the defenseless

in the sacred city of

a man’s afterbirth

and a man’s sunset

a star,

got the certifying papers

of his toil half a decade gone

yet the head and her tenacity

left him no space in the

screeching merchandise

of survival

and then, his plight

engulfed him,

clutching but his papers,

and the vehicle gave

his body the ruggedness

of tar

so kissed destiny bye

as he was borne upon

the shoulders of Samaritans

reward for resilience

a beclouded vision

on her way to prime

then,

sleep good, sleep good

young one

seal the griefs of

your aged ash-bearers

who will come at night

in black veils,

forbidden to behold

the silhouette of your

resting place…

Olaposi W Halim

Olaposi W. Halim was born on the 28th of April, 1993 in Sapele, Delta State, Nigeria. He is a graduate of English Studies at the College of Education, Igueben, Nigeria. Halim writes poetry and short stories, alongside teaching English Language and Literature.