A POLYCHROMATIC RECOVERY

by Joshua Effiong

Akwa Ibom, Nigeria

into this poem I commit my body. & search

for a thousand and one ways to stitch the

morning sun into my chest. my friend say I

paint a ghost of myself & archive it within

my dermis. every time she propounds the

theories of unswallowing the broken mirrors,

housing the fragments of beautified dolor.

& yet, the practicality sinks into the fang

of the unpredictability of my thoughts. How

do you resurrect a body whose mind is sepulchered?

My head says: make a violin of your wrist & hoist

thyself to oblivion…

I am afraid to sing the blade's

song, & be among the many whose identities

turned into verses of slaughter as requiem for

existence. How much of time is enough to

make elastic of the line between living & leaving?

A confluence of candlelights. A bundle of unnamed

griefs. A rusted trumpet. Say amen to the hallelujah

of redemption, my soul. Say no to the extinguishing

of thy light. A scrutiny of the dark can lead to a switch.

 
 

Joshua Effiong

Joshua Effiong is a Nigerian writer and a lover of literature. His works has appeared in Eboquills, Kalahari Review, & Shallow Tales Review. He is an author of a poetry chapbook Autopsy of Things Left Unnamed. When he is not writing, he is reading, watching movies and listening to music. An undergraduate of Science Laboratory Technology. He lives in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. And here he writes from. You can find him on Instagram @josh.effiong and twitter @JoshEffiong.