& sometimes I like to
think my heart
is a tree outgrowing
in summer,
eating the sun.
Its ancient trunk—
my aorta resplendent
with branches.
So I let everything
bask under the
coolness of my shade.
From the ants
to the birds of prey.
& sometimes the
people I let love
me repeatedly till my
bark memorizes the
bite of the blade.
Recounts offhand
its metallic taste.
Recitation like that.
Love language.
They say this is
the only way to love.
This enrobement
in scars, this
mingling lacquer
with tears and
steel and something
crimson. Even
now, someone is
knifing— not too
gently, not too soft.
Only loneliness
exist in these veins,
therefore is the blade
not some company?
Come, partake in the
baptism. I am the
river— red &warm.
Just say you love me.
These veins, less lonely
when mixed with love.
With steel, he encloses
your heart in a hug.
Till you puncture.
Marvellous Mmesomachi Igwe, Swan X, is a budding poet from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. He has been published in Serotonin, Isele, The Dawn Review, Poetry ColumnNND, Poetry Sango Ota, The Shallow Tales Review and has works forthcoming in The Cloudscent Journal, Weganda Review, Akpata amongst others. He is also the co-winner of the 2024 Folorunsho Editor’s Prize for Poetry and a finalist for both the 2024 Kofi Awoonor Poetry Prize and the 2024 Dawn (Review) Prize for Poetry. You can find him daydreaming, listening to his favorite singer Lana del Rey, or writing about limerence, melancholia and the mundanities of existence. He tweets @mesomaccius.
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