Ifeoluwa Ayandele

Of Sniffing Faith & Breaking Bird's Cage

This city wasn’t forced down my throat;
I harped my harps near its willows
& beheld my first sun in the bulwark

of its walls. Yet, loneliness moaned
through its empty streets—this loneliness
is like a dog running through the desert,

sniffing faith & a piece of bone.
Amidst this, Maami opens the rear window
to peep into the future & sings:

we can’t make a home in this city
without breaking its eggs; we can’t hold
home in our hands without breaking birds’ cage.

Our living room housed dusty furniture—
love was an old chair creaking in the dark
& our legs couldn’t walk to the front door

alone: fear. I broke the living room chair
when I knew I-love-you was just a talk show
airing on an evening T.V. show.

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Ifeoluwa Ayandele is a Nigerian poet. His poetry has featured in The McNeese Review, Shift: A Journal of Literary Oddities, Rattle, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Tiny Spoon, Paper Dragon and elsewhere. He tweets @IAyandele.