On uncertain nights / I stuff my mouth with aggressive meditations/
Angels process my spirit/
A bridge between regions /ascending descending /God’s
Quietness is a thousand times louder than loudest /I blare so fervent
Whenever I pour into a prayer /
Until my English tongue is incapacitated/ until my mother tongue is
Finished into/
A neat silence /I break into a language holding my mouth hostage/
I stagger into a solemn doxology/ I push the notes aside/ I’m conducting
Orchestra of angelic hums/ it’s God’s room
Goodness Olanrewaju Ayoola (b.1989) is an award-winning Nigerian poet and teacher of English and Literature. He reaches out to poetry as escapism from the contentions within and around him. He was one of the judges for the 2016 Green Authors Prize (GAP) sponsored by Words Rhymes and Rhythms. Some of his poems have appeared in Mojave Heart, Burning House Press, Isacoustics, Brittle Paper, WRR and elsewhere. He is the author of Meditations (WRR, 2016), a collection of poems.