love as a collateral damage
just after a woman found love
in a man after her prayers— a frontline
soldier strong enough to shoulder
her lifetime cravings
war took him away
for the unrequited love of a country—
a home devoid of roofing
caring so little about the survival
of the common man
whose consent is sought
on a grocery bag—
imported from another country
that once upon a time fed
on their plantations—
grown by slaves
of posterity
and the back of prosperity is turned
on our future—
compromised by our fathers
to whom we are bastards—
overseen by history with the
magnifying glass of memories
of our grandfathers who fought
the wars in khakis and agbadas
just after she found love again
in the nuptial knot
of two tribes
the unrequited love
for a country borrowed him
without a collateral of hope
war carried him away
on his shoulders
without bringing
him back on a dance of victory
her love life
was a collateral damage
for her fatherland
could a country not be worse
than a deadbeat dad?
instructions to the heavy soul
you are not always a vacuum
of silence or echoing vanity—
maybe sometimes only—
but you should not incarcerate
your whole life in one limb
only— I once broke my bones
trying to contain the weights
in my head, then I learnt—
you are not to be a scale for the
tonnes of your mountains of gloom—
in their caves are your silence
in your silence are the storms
in your storm is a lightening
of recreation. I would loose myself
in layers, in a book of blank pages
or in the warm body of my lover
like a swimming pool— either way
I would pour myself into a cup
of bliss— the taste of her coffee
at mornings. I would overflow
the weight of my burdens because
I know I could always live
for every dream, I would wake
to live above all suffocations
I have found many ways to breathe
who dare restricts water behind
it’s shore without seeing a reclamation
encroaching his neighborhood?
the resilience of earth is not
for the boastfulness of asteroids
Biography
Tukur writes from a coastal axis in Lagos Island. His poems have appeared in Poemify Magazine, EBOquills, Rising Phoenix, Libretto, Nigiga Review, BBPC Anthology, The Quills and elsewhere. He won the Brigitte Piorson Monthly Poetry Contest (March 2018) and shortlisted in few others. He explores the vastness and transcience of existence.