Poet-Today | Hauwa Shafii Nuhu | The Arts-Muse Fair

falling

the night you fell into

him

as he recited off his memory on your request

saying each word as though

tendering cream on loved skin

his voice sailing like faith; calm

rising at sharp edges

resuming its pace soon after

that night,

there was the way he wrapped silence

into your pores while he read

there was the way your heart

quietened even more at each word

and there was how he came slowly

to the last line that reminded you

of tides

but it was in the silence that followed

that stood there like a comfortable hole

that you fell

indecisive clouds

the guy you just posted about on facebook,

the indecisive cloud

moving towards you on the street yesterday,  

and asked you to let him stare at you for a minute

yes, him

it's because since his sister died,

with half his name in her mouth like a bread loaf,

he finds her in the space

between the teeth of every gap-toothed woman

it's why he will marry a gap-toothed woman

but it's why he will leave her soon after

it's why he will not understand how

the same sky that rains  

can hold a burning sun

the cabinet

the one time my heart snapped me in half,

it held me where i was thinnest

between its thumb and forefinger,

and reached a hand up the cabinet,

pulling down the tablecloth

upon which i arrayed the original versions

of everything i knew

sitting beside myself later, and trying to patch us back,

i saw in the open mouth of each stitch

that even if we survive the lesions from

people who once made jelly out of us

we will not the deceit and treacheries of our hearts

*********

Hauwa Shafii Nuhu’s works have appeared or are forthcoming in Brittlepaper, Ake Review, Eunoia Review, After The Pause journal, Saraba magazine, The Bitter Oleander Press, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing a law degree.