speak to me

Joseph C.P. Christopher

Speak to me, lying mouth: what
deriding blather have you invested

in me? What addictive delusions? When
I was little, I was told that the future

was leather-palmed gloves, I could
use to turn desires into roses. Having

turned gray, the mice still has the offing
dead in its teeth. Who will speak to it

about morality?Who will speak to loosen
its grip deep in flesh? Speak to me, lying

tongue: what garbage of moonlight have
you inoculated into broken childhood? The

same one about the earth being safe
with all its tender sweetness? I have

paid bone-chillingly with the taste of death
on my tongue. Each passing day,

living is purgatory in one’s skin, dying
is reptilian sorrow marrowed in every

bone. No sermon awaits the preacher, no healing awaits the tongue, only fire,

grenade-like, that comes from the vein
of gunshot. No love awaits the giver only

knife pain, that comes from deep below lacerated wounds. What worms are eating

at the rind of your lie?

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Joseph C.P. Christopher is a poet. He is the author of Salient Whispers (2014) which was shortlisted for ANA/Chevron award for poetry in 2014 and his newest collection is titled Dust in the Rain (2020). His works feature in Praxis Magazine, Lunaris, Ample Remains and elsewhere. He is currently a doctoral candidate with Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. He lives in Abuja.

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