I don’t like to write about love,
but then, it’s the only word with an enchanting tone.
So when I hear a goat bleat ‘LOooVvvEee’,
It still doesn’t lose its taste.
I don’t like to write about love,
but then, it’s the only word that needs to be loved.
It’s the only word no one would look up in the dictionary
because LOVE, the dictionary murdered a while ago.
So if you one day wake,
and like a typical daybreak,
breakfast is corn flakes
and morning meals are another heartache,
you’ll need the headlines to put the icing on the cake.
Ready to hear news of an outbreak or an earthquake,
since that was the usual national ache,
but there,
staring into your soul is something different,
Something that your body can’t take
and at that moment you feel like you can’t feel,
like a numbness, a roasted steak.
You feel like a car with flat tires, broken pads,
a smashed windscreen, a burning trunk
and faulty brakes.
Like having a toothache, bellyache and a supportive headache.
It was the end of the world, an Armageddon remake.
For to hear that “Love was dead”
Yes! Love
The love you kept spitting on,
maltreating and mishandling.
The love you used and lied about in your work of art,
all because it cost you a heartbreak.
Like withered roses
and melting petals,
Its body lay in a moulding morgue,
mutilated and dehydrated.
Like cracking branches in summer’s burns,
Its lifeless body falls apart,
crumbling like the edifice of Pompeii.
So when I say I don’t like to write about love,
It’s just me trying to show LOVE some love
Anu Soneye is a young Nigerian poet born on November 20, 1999 in Ile-Ife, Osun state, Nigeria. He is currently studying English Language at Obafemi Awolowo University. He writes both lyrical and narrative poetry. His interest lies in the painting of reality with the colors of literature. He also delves into writings related to the state of the African society, specifically, his country, Nigeria. He is a writer who sees writing above being a mere act. For him, writing is an unavoidable art, a necessity and a beneficial addiction.