I Hear Voices
In an episode of senile psychosis
Nocturnal solo long walk barefoot
I hear voices of persons most loved
Conversing in loud tempo
Voices loudly persistent urging to strip self-naked
Unable to keep still
With a mouth running like a broken faucet
Uttering perpetual incoherence
I hear voices
Only I can hear like privy information
Promoting violent outbursts
Replete with biting and screaming at innocent bystanders
I hear voices
Overwhelmingly eroding consciousness
Slipping into the abyss
I cannot be found
I hear voices
Like a drumroll
In my head loud, but clear
A forceful invasion of self
I hear thought like voices
Controlling, commanding
Like an order on a parade ground
There are voices in my head; there is chaos there.
Poem by Yewande Adebowale is a Nigerian Lawyer, Storyteller, Poet and Author of two collections of Poems titled ‘A tale of being, of green and of ing..’ (2019) and Voices: A collection of poems that tell stories’ (2016). Her poems have appeared in Visual Verse, Afritondo, Trampset, Poemify and elsewhere.
Her works carve a niche of poetic storytelling assuming a prose like form of creative expression inspired by her African roots. Winner of the Fidelity Bank prize for creative writing and TGN poetry prize, her works are inspired by the realities of life and living, in poetic and philosophical fashion.
She lives in and writes from the city of Lagos, Nigeria.