THE CASUALTIES
By Boluwatife Afolabi
Ifem,
Life is a battle
and like all similar debacles
we must deal with casualties,
cry for them,
become them even-
Husbands,
too broken to return-
to eager wives
to hungry kids
to randy mistresses.
Brothers,
too far
from home
too lost,
beyond mother’s salvation.
Warmth from embraces
felt only in dreams,
remembered only in nostalgia.
Ifem,
Love is a lot like war
so we keep struggling:
against becomings-
heart meets heart,
against control-
heart conquers heart,
against eventualities-
heart plunders heart,
till there is nothing left to steal
except scars
and memories that won’t die
till sun hits equinox
and Cupid’s cycle of violence begins again.
Boluwatife Afolabi writes from Ibadan and His debut chapbook 'The Cartographer of Memory' is to be published this year by SankofaMag
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