Guest Blog: Three Poems by Emmanuel Iduma
I
When night
covered me
in a prayer blanket
I interceded
for our recumbent figures
& watched
the interminable horizon
of lost love
I know you twice
first as azure
distant beauty
second as marigold
glistening body
They say
those who leave
die slowly
I say
I have dreamt many mournings
I dream you leaving.
II
Tell me this:
How many elusive ways
are there to say
I leave you?
In affection as in life
we tolerate endings differently:
A man lingers too long
in the shadow
of a lover’s departure
Or discovers
infernal despair
after the shock of absence
In leaving as in life
clarity is accompanied
by sad prescience
Knowledges of ways
a once airy room
turns pungent
As meanings accumulate.
III
The day unfolds
in tremors of regret
& departure
Once in an airport…
All ground
now known to us
shifts on memories
of rescinded proposals
Two is a number
of rebuttal
and hence
of acceptance
& disavowal
This way
I know you twice
___________
Emmanuel Iduma is a Nigerian poet, novelist, art critic and lawyer.
Hehe. Emmanuel Iduma is not a poetaster! Such poignant poems about leaving and not loving…. inside this harmattan cold!
Hmm… beautiful!
This is indeed beautiful.