i open into the chilled bones of the uncovered children in Idlib & find blooming tulips shut off in the reflection of extreme cold. hawks carrying firebricks on their beaks hover in the sky, ready to unleash terror on helpless preys. the night gets halved as the broadcast from the radio declares another series of loss. grief is no place to seek asylum when borders close & the shadows of your lost ones haunt the nights. i see women with children strapped to their backs & the lanes stretch before them. They unfurl into the mouth of extinguishers. & sometimes I wonder why the world is formed into a triangle of loss: dream drowning in large waters to meet high walls of rejection.
Agunbiade Kehinde is a 21-year-old Nigerian poet and campus journalist. His creative works have been featured or are forthcoming on Vagabond City Lit, Kalahari Review, The Pangolin Review, Little Rose Magazine, MusicInAfrica, amongst others. He studies English Literature at the department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University.