A boy sprouts from the crust of dust
Between the grasses of the middlebelt’s face,
Inside the brass body of a dancing flea,
A dance of the trickling fall.
This boy may have been breezed here,
Crust of dust is not a boy’s home
Slender shrub with pink
Like a rose’s lip,Like
A fig tree didn’t birth a date,
Didn’t dates came earlier?
With honeycomb of a cell,
Like dating back to the day he was born,
A woman tasted the pain
A woman spiced up the dance,
The cry of my brother was
The painhead tributing through our palms
Everyone we knew buried his voice
With what he loved best—
Fig trees,Date fruits and roses.
Abdulrazaq Salihu is a Nigerian 17 year old poet, spoken word artist and writer. He was the winner of most valuable contestant (male) at HIASFEST 2021, first runner up for spoken poetry and second runner up for on the spot poetry contest. He is a member of the hilltop creative arts foundation and also an organizer of HIASFEST (the biggest teen literary event in Africa). He has some of his poems published/upcoming in SHAGAZ anthology; an Indian anthology that won fastest compiled anthology, Konya Shamsrumi magazine, Christmas tide, Waah re kisan, stories from the heart, Amulet poetry magazine, Icefloe magazine and more. On Instagram, follow Abdulrazaq._Salihu.
Angel Rust 