you know, I once
reckoned it was love.
*
on that auspicious day,
when the lunar moon appeared
*
with two planets by its flanks
—Venus too, Jupiter too.
*
it sprayed butterflies, pinkish
ones that floated across our cranium; an ecstasy
*
that limps through my pounding heart
& my pores that swivel sweats.
*
you giggled at me, & the glittering of your incisors
illumed my liaison —isn’t this love?
*
you ran to me, in ìró & bùbá
strapped to your curvy turpentined buttocks.
*
drums of beads, I heard
jingles of the beads on your waist.
*
you hugged me, & that was it,
I thought it was your own share
*
of the cake I rationed.
so, I jumped off a cliff
*
& foresaw your love would hold me
back. You brought your hand towards
*
me, & it slipped, & I fell,
my body didn’t shatter, my heart did.