at first i dreamt of waves sending salaam to its shore &
beach sand finding home within our toes caressing her hair
with my fingers long as spring onions
how do you define a beautiful dream if not like this
i catch myself praying to god in another language أبعد الحب عني، يا رب
since the only one i loved now lives far away i feared she comes back
home not knowing how to say my name she had forgotten deep
sometimes when memories shield my mind i write knowing
not all lovely dreams choose to live forever feel
i know many ways to entangle dead dreams from my heart
i stand in the balcony i see the city in a glance
breeze silence my sister smiles reading my diary
she finds her name on the middle pages
may we all find salaam
Black boys' poems always start with distress
you see it first from the title.
Here, a mother's nightmare is her own son
who flees from home.
One morning, there was noise on the streets,
an eternal silence had descended in another boy's body.
Nightmare in reality, a mother wails and curses
her own neighbours, they have done that too.
And tomorrow is just a replay of today.
Born on a Friday in October, Adedokun Ibrahim Anwar is a homeschooled Nigerian, a teen writer who was born and raised in the suburbs of Lagos. Winner for the African Writers Award (Poetry: 2023), his works had graced esteemed literary journals, including Brittle Paper, Eunoia Review, African Writer Magazine, The Shallow Tales Review, and White Cresent Journal, among others. TWITTER
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