The Painting
Chika Onyanezi
Nigeria
All these for my lover:
A rocket science
Telescopes
A map of Jupiter
And a lantern —
Burning from the lips
I love you and you know it
A man soaring with time
On his waist
Swirling, dancing
Dangling from sky to sky
Jerking off
Thousands of feet above
Playing a dangerous game called: who cares?
And smoking thick clouds —
With rusted lungs
I know you’ve heard this story before
It’s a painting
I bought for you
Which you never saw
Nor cared to see.
I will tell you what it is:
Yellow birds
Yellow cage
A black earth
A turning wind.
I wish you saw them.
I wish I gave them to you.
Chika Onyenezi’s work has been published in The Bombay Review, Litro Magazine, and Synchronized Chaos, among others. Follow him on Twitter.
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