Elegy for boys who never returned

Photo: Fiona

Inspired by “For Boys Who Went” by Adedayo Adeyemi Agarau

I’ve seen sorrow’s  bareback 

Promising boys whisked away

Into bodies into aches into tombstones.

I’ve watched mothers 

Break into rivers

Before their children’s 

Sprawled bodies.

And yesterday, my mother stung me

With the pale news.

A boy next door found limbless around the street corner.

Today I laid my rose to godspeed my friend.

Returning to  witness the market people 

Scattered around a boy dressed in flames.

Some say he stole from a vendor’s shop.

Flare my soul as incense Heavenward

Ring it as a bell of supplication 

Tell God, boys too were created in his image.

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