Let me be Water
Taofeek Ayeyemi
The circle begins with a dot. The river begins with a drop. In the wake of people becoming what they chase, let me be water. Let me be a spider weaving a geometry of home and trap. Let me be weaverbirds in a stranger’s yard, picking grains. Let me be a hen clawing the soil open. Let me be a rat biting off the intermission and suspense in a crime novel. Let me be a half burnt foolscap sheet, heavy with secrets, tossed by wind. Let me be a breeze rushing into a stuffy room. Let me be mango ripening for stray birds. Let me be plastic and metal waiting for scavengers. Let me be a mirror that blurs a villain. Let me be a loaf on the path of black ants. Let me be what is concealed in a shell’s warmth. Let me be a candle at the mercy of a flickering flame, melting and morphing. Let me be water.
Sizing up
Taofeek Ayeyemi
Sometimes,
a fire needs a sprinkle of water
to ease itself from
itself.
In the mucus of a dog’s eyes,
a sword is tearing the veil
between a boy and the unseen
world.
A man festoons life
with words of eulogies and
a honeybee dies in his mouth.
Another man picks
a pinch of salt and calls it
life,
see how the sky drips into
his palm like a crushed flower.
See the sun, unsteady
like a festooned helium,
sniffing the bliss of his sweat.
Sometimes,
man needs a date
with the mirror
to talk his grief
out of his own body.
Taofeek Ayeyemi “Aswagaawy” is a Nigerian lawyer, writer and author of a full-length collection “Aubade at Night or Serenade in the Morning” (FlowerSong Press, 2021). A BotN and Pushcart Prize Nominee, his works have appeared in Lucent Dreaming, Up-the-Staircase Quarterly, FERAL, Akitsu Quarterly, Banyan Review, Conscio, Agbowó, and elsewhere. He won the 2021 Loft Books Flash Fiction Competition, and 2nd Places in the 2025 Octofest poetry contest. He is @Aswagaawy on X.