RETURNING

Ridwan Fasasi

I take it that this world was never meant to be beautiful,

That the prophecy is to sever the body from this cruelty.

This is why I walked through graveyards, through the

Rots of beetroots, reminiscing how in every cemetery,

There's a garden. For every death, there's always a return.

In Yoruba, the dead are returned in a costume.

Body wrapped in Eku. In Igbo, the mythology remains the same:

A child is born bearing the soul of the dead. Though

I do not share the sentiment that I must return this way,

Something in this field keeps calling the dead.

Mushrooms, milky white in black history of mirth. The trees

Bearing the burden of mangos: luscious yellow growing

Old as yoke; notes of mixed pineapple and citrus.

Imagining myself as their seeds, once buried in dirt.

I must admit, what remains after these images is

Brittle flowers, body broken as twigs.  What remains

Is my body ruined by protest poems. Lord, this is a plea:

Return me as peace, as these birds, in awe of this greenery,

In awe of the golden glints of the fruits in the sunshine.

The aim is to build my nest with the future of flights.

Ridwan Fasasi, SWAN I, es un editor Nigeriano, escritor, y curador de arte de descendecia Yoruba. Nominado al Pushcart Prize y Best of the Net, su obra ha aparecido en ANMLY, Chestnut Review, Frontier Poetry, Eunoia Review, Akpata, Lucent Dreaming, Strange Horizon, entre otros. Fue el ganador del 2024 Labori Prize de poesía y el Ignyte Award de Mejor Poesía Especulativa. Su trabajo también ha estado en los finalistas del SprinNg Annual Poetry Contest, Gbemisola Adeoti Poetry Prize, Lucky Jefferson Poetry & Prose Contest, Splendor of Dawn Poetry Contest, SOBAF Poetry Slam, y del 2024 Akachi Prize for Literature. Es lector para Anomalous Press y revisor en D'lit Review.

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