Fascinator
after Norman Lewis: Girl with Yellow Hat, 1936
Yours was yellow, lifted like scripture as a deed to
outlive the creased gospel and its maroon sequences.
Unity, in the hour of chocolate bloom, is a big ask for
reverends whose motivations limited them to explanations
each of us are equipped to spin. Belief drifts, its
mobility purchased by the dying second. Objective,
you were not and for that you were never sorry. Every
angel can fill a chapter with their perfect attendance.
None are shy to announce their perspectives on pain,
gloating about touch. The state of agreement without,
easier to imagine than it’d be to forget. And I will tell you
lack can be terrible. There were days I was almost relieved,
or tutored, by my failure to miss you. I would have done so
awfully. Like a drone graphing graveyards for search engines,
no one finds new ways to talk about death. We just
go about our days in sunshine, swiveling between
easels and straw with no indication as to where we should
look for our guardians. I look up, I sing our favorite Anita.
Rolihlahla
You’ve seen all the trees
drooping, like dunes
sponsored by a mess
of wind to continue
in areas more private.
Obedience can be sad.
And a name could prove
to be too much trouble.
You, for one, were given
a dependable one
but it occurred at a time
when names and calls
for bodies were less pure.
If only you saw the face
on my brother as his name
cramped the mouth
of our teacher. Its vowels
worth a fraction
the effort of Dostoevsky
on her tongue. Twigs snapping
on the walk away
beneath the band of bikes
beside us. Following dirt,
its decoration shuffled
from the verge,
we solicit sounds to be
marked by the next time
instead of suffering
blunders of the flesh.
I want to ask what you did
first time tomorrow
became less tragic than
today, but you’re dead.
I suppose I have
the sensation of war
to thank for that.
Olatunde Osinaike , originally from the West Side of Chicago, is a Nigerian-American poet, essayist, and software developer. He is the author of Tender Headed, selected as a winner of the 2022 National Poetry Series. His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Literary Hub, The Slowdown, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, Best New Poets, 20.35 Africa, Wildness, Obsidian, and elsewhere.