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Zino
Asalor
Forestry 212
(For Miss Shaw)
Iroko shivers
not from harmonic tingles
Harmattan haze whistling by
Puckered lips congealing
Its blood in a mound
When Iroko shivers
It is not mosquitoes
Or malaria or fevers
Iroko does not shake waist
wrapped with beads of pride
for pain
When Iroko quivers
Its trunk, a lone leaf strung
in puppet breeze
It is to dance a while
The drumbeats of madness
Flying feet in applause
Flapping lids and chuckling
At nothing
And when Iroko is calm
and buried
Then, only then
Can you water my ears
with stories
Greying Questions
Stolen shadows
A stretch of unfurled fingers
Forged with fire, oars
To paddle and paddle
Us over oceans of time
Your compass angling
Always to Bermuda
We
Slept on the night of youth
Vomited into waterfalls of memory
Dreams
We called, We reached
but echoes
of Impotent stares
From children who played
Long and forgot curfews
Do not float
You are gone sailing
where winds fear to blow
and may return or not
We know, I know
I know about
The crack of age
whipping blacks out the skin of my niggers
But why leave cackling Caucasians
on my moustache?
Why?
Guilty as Charged
Here, take a toke
Tarry a while
Let us weave corn-row tendrils
That reach deep
Deep into cavities to pluck
Strings at our discordant dreams
Town crier who awakens a dawn
Let grey tunes sift
Into silent paths of the village square
Sprinkling battle front victories
To a stranger passing through
Should he but wait a while
Look, look
See as clouds tickle
Shimmers from passing stars?
We also are the breath
Of moons
So here, take a toke my love
Take a toke of me
As I took of you
Let us burn these nights away
Arson is no felony
in Passion’s court
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| Zino Asalor studied
Computer Science at the University of
Benin and has gone on to become a
Network Engineer as well as an
Entrepreneur. No matter where he runs,
the shadow of words, both written and
spoken is never far. He is currently
working on his first collection of
poetry, The Diary That Became Man and
other poems. Also in view is his
novel, Tell Me Something |
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