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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FEEL THE THROE
OF A NECK SANDBAGGED INTO THE BLUE?
a memorial for Joy Okom Adole what does it mean to feel the throe of a neck sandbagged into the blue? my gaze holds a waterfall & a sea teasing a drowning body with the image of the sky. in the mouth of this poem, a birdling digests its gall & craves a hen. i do not know what to make of this: an index finger tracing a lost kin on blood-maps incised into skin. daily you wail the coldness of strange hands. & daily i stretch my tongue into a blanket for you, but is it enough? last night i buried my face in the picture of a girl’s body in a wooden box— why was she scrawny in her white satin gown? why was her ashen face shaped like grief?
Ayokunle Samuel Betiku is a Nigerian writer who sees his fingers as bridges between his heart and the world. His works have appeared in journals and anthologies, including Parousia, Monus, EOPP, BPPC, Kalahari Review, Ngiga Review African Writer, Libretto & elsewhere. He lives in the city of Ondo, South West Nigeria, from where he writes.