Olalekan Daniel – “Depression and Peace”

I

I’d travelled with the moon till it died to a troubled sea

where a tree with saving branch stronger than i

could lift me above mounds of loam that swallowed roots.

I wanted it easy so I’d taken tiny twine to the tree;

I wanted it innocent so I’d chosen a tree by the sea…

at least if the twine failed, or my weight wearied the branch,

the troubled sea & my cold body would find peace beyond…

II

I’d touched my sore in the place that it sweetened

like an early morning bite of a bitter-leaf stem…

I touched it the more till it became bounty bridges

of lettered pages with colour of smeared ink-black!

I didn’t cry but I saw grasses weep for me droplet dews,

I saw winds flogging off leaves, scattered on dust…

the weeping grasses, the scattered leaves, and I; dying!

III

I’d built an altar at the nook of a forgotten hut

where my hurts burned and burned like an incense…

I’d hidden weights of a coward heart under the tent

of wet tongue and clenched teeth till my heart melted

as death snapped his fingers at me in early mo(u)rnings…

my tongue became wet with tears, it tasted sour;

my pages were with oozed drops, dripping death..

IV

I’d heard the echoes of my shadow call in the dark…

I’d fed my soul with cup of brewed wine to the brim…

I’d seen candle die into new body without string of life…

suicide is sinful; deep-ression is a self slow death

so I sieved the shaft from the wheat and saw light,

I groped for a plain sheet and poured my heart in letters,

folded it to paper plane and watched my past fly with wind.

Photo by Benjamín Castillo on Unsplash