“Languages” by David Ishaya Osu

Languages

i do not chew fruits
that i cannot pronounce

garden

whoever made

my body, first
drank a moon

revival

it is open & close
to fire, it will body
along midnight’s
circles—next
time you will
cry, she replied

material

it is written on bodies
that clocks will
not age nor
listen

flying

& shadows
in the attic
are sisters

because

sleeping
changes every
body from
lines to
a quiet family

***

David Ishaya Osu (b. 1991) is an Afo native from Onda. His poetry appears in: Vinyl, Chiron Review, Cutbank, The Lampeter Review, The Nottingham Review, Spillway, Juked, RædLeaf Poetry: The African Diaspora Folio, A Thousand Voices Rising: An Anthology of Contemporary African Poetry, among others. David is a board member of the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, and was selected for the 2016 USA Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop. He was poetry editor for The James Franco Review. David is currently polishing his debut poetry book.

[The above poem originally appeared in Numero Cinq and is reprinted here with permission of the author.]