Fasasi Abdulrosheed Oladipupo
black boys; white doves
a black boy sings in my dream,
white dove comes back with a sea of history,
mulatto of questions, stray butterfly in a field of brambles,
a boy sings at minnesota; an ode to home he does not know,
after years of explorers' havocs, some girls
still realize themselves undiscovered, they sing songs
of origin in fading unison, white doves
find them but could not give them home,
remember under the tree at ouida, where
they were pronounced outcasts, never to know
their way back home, i say they undo them of earth,
they plucked off their names. remember the well of badagry
where home was proscribed poison, for them and
these boys who scream around orphaning the death of origin.
at birmingham, a black boy buries himself in a pool of elegy.
he knows what it means to be a lost moth, what it is to be spoils.
a black boy sings in my dream,
white dove comes back with a sea of history,
mulatto of questions, stray butterfly in a field of brambles,
a boy sings at minnesota; an ode to home he does not know,
after years of explorers' havocs, some girls
still realize themselves undiscovered, they sing songs
of origin in fading unison, white doves
find them but could not give them home,
remember under the tree at ouida, where
they were pronounced outcasts, never to know
their way back home, i say they undo them of earth,
they plucked off their names. remember the well of badagry
where home was proscribed poison, for them and
these boys who scream around orphaning the death of origin.
at birmingham, a black boy buries himself in a pool of elegy.
he knows what it means to be a lost moth, what it is to be spoils.
--
Fasasi Abdulrosheed Oladipupo is a Nigerian poet and the author of a micro-chapbook "Sidratul Muntaha" (Ghost City Press, 2022). His poetry has been nominated for Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best New Poet anthology. His work has been published or forthcoming at; Poetry South, Oakland Arts Review, Carolina Muse, ROOM, Santa Ana River Review, Ambit Magazine, Southern Humanities Review, Oxford Review of Books, Olongo Africa, Stand Magazine, Louisiana Literature, GASHER Journal and elsewhere.
Fasasi Abdulrosheed Oladipupo is a Nigerian poet and the author of a micro-chapbook "Sidratul Muntaha" (Ghost City Press, 2022). His poetry has been nominated for Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best New Poet anthology. His work has been published or forthcoming at; Poetry South, Oakland Arts Review, Carolina Muse, ROOM, Santa Ana River Review, Ambit Magazine, Southern Humanities Review, Oxford Review of Books, Olongo Africa, Stand Magazine, Louisiana Literature, GASHER Journal and elsewhere.