First Gong Vol. 8: Thrust FIRST GONG 8 THRUST | Page 123

MY NAME IS A POEM – Ajijola Habeeb
(poem of the month)
My name is a poem
That single piece of word
Announcing my identity, personality
Ethnicity and nationality
All at once
My name is a poem
That resounding two syllabic sound
Attached to everything I do
What I should do
And what I should become
My name is my poem
And I’ve always lived by my name
But life’s pace has gotten faster than I expected
Its pull dragging me by the collar
Denying my lung the fresh air it needs
Like a paper origami on a flowing lake
On a raining day
Being pulled along by the river tides
Never having the freewill to go this way or that way
Like a paper origami on a flowing lake
On a rainy day
Hurried along by life’s pace
I’ve walked past my name and left my poem behind
Now sitting alone in this darkness
Putting on my regrets like a fully adorned royal regalia
Trying to remember what my name once sounded like
What the melodies of my poems once felt like
Trying to filter out my poem amidst these numerous voices
Inside of my head
Biting off bits of my hearts, and
spitting out the chunks
Against the deafening echoes of this silent shadows
Like they were the rotten flesh of my decaying carcass
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