Before your homely art, my mother.

I come mysteriously crisper outside my body.

Bait me after you; let us fish.

I left the hook I can’t comprehend, another watery grace there is drowning souls.

I am tired pretending to the future.

I can’t swim.

Canoe me, I left my hope and desires.

Looking. Looking. Without seeing.

My brothers are scholars in the art of killing,

but unable to master how to bleach their hearts,

They are a book with cruel characters

sweet landscapes; going backward,

and dialogues that brain-drain its readers.

Characters that will dialogue you

out of reality into their perception;

till you eat your fingers taking it for spoon

they’ve kissed me with the lips of their hatreds

Till I resembled a sachet of weak love.

Till voids steep me and gross my hope.

If you are a drunker, better wine will bait you.

Umar Yogiza Jr. is a writer, Poet and Builder based in Abuja, Nigeria. He is from Giza, Nasarawa State.
He read Building Technology from Akwa’Ibom Polytechnic, Literary and Creative studies from Wales Open University, United Kingdom, and Human psychology from Islamic University Online. He is the author of Instrument of Immortality, The Way Out Of My Heart and Singing in a Bonfire. He’s the founder of free poetic universe —an online poetry platform. His works have appeared in anthologies, journals and online platforms. He is the 2017 Winner of Atlanta Black Street Poetry Prize.