Gods Of The Broken Arrow
Tolu Ogunlesi
grains of words said & unsaid,
strewn with salt, crowd the tongues
of my jeans & hair & nails
& soul. I am an ex-lover
at the mercy of old times, watching
memories exhume themselves.
stale love is a humorless ventriloquist,
speaking through the lips of every shop-window.
the gardens of city squares
rebloom our fallen petals
& the spirits of the birds we fed
from our seat beside the memorial fountain,
& the crumbs we blessed them with, insist
on watching over us, as gods of the broken arrow.
Tolu Ogunlesi was born in 1982. He graduated in pharmacy from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria in 2004. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Listen to the Geckos Singing From A Balcony, (Bewrite Books, UK, 2004). His work has appeared in Wasafiri, Sable, Orbis, Eclectica, Stickman Review, VLQ, Inkpot, Mississippi Review, Times Arts Review, Smoke: A London Peculiar, Sentinel Poetry Quarterly and Subtle Tea among others, and is forthcoming in Parameter and Narrative magazines. He can be reached at to4ogunlesi@yahoo.com