Living From Beneath
Photo: Alfred Kenneally
Mother,
you are forlorn for me, for us. you are the protective
talon that inspires us into obedience, into discipline,
into becoming the paths to ourselves. you bear the
brunt, the struggles, and it breaks me to see your
misty eyes, to see the water you conceal behind
your pupils.
loss has hit us. we are now single in the misty
storms, blown by the feathers of fate, of rejection, of
the winds we do not see coming. but it hits you the
most, in places you cannot touch, in corridors you
do not dare open.
you stay strong because you have to, for us to see
the hope behind your misty eyes.
I do not how to say this, but conveying the depth of
my love for you lays heavy on my tongue. grief rolls
effortlessly through my dreams, clouding my
judgments and realizations. I know we fade through
time, through dreams we do not yet know its depth,
through winds and waves we cannot seep into.
I am sad that grief breaks you into strong fragments
of strength, for us.
forgive me for the words that broker out of my depths
without thought. forgive me for the depths that I
cannot lay bare, for the dreams I cannot fully live.
death drains me, and I do not know how to express
sadness, as these waters have refused to purge from
their enclaves.
hang on, matriarch. for us. for the experiences you
live through us. for the visions of what would be.
I want to receive blessings and bliss from your old
depths, for my faith tells me that paradise lies within
the blockades
of your feet.
About the author
Adedimeji Quayyim Abdul-Hafeez is a mad creative on the loose. He views the world as a conglomerate of crumbling realities and is enamoured by how poetry embodies the hope of our collective humanity. You can contact him on quayyimadedimeji@gmail.com and on Twitter @quayyimbakr
