Poetry: Two Poems by Peter Elias Ashiwhobere | ACEworld

Hair with a Tree Physique 

(for Nancy Agada)

In your presence I become water
Listening to your heart’s song
& symphony of nature

I sit to wonder
Of the forest of wildering strands
That earth & hatch on your head

There & then I search,
In your fertile soil, for my hair’s dream
Circumventing in shame of growth

Each strand is a high-pitch song
Shooting for the moon
In the dominating eye of the night

& when comb feast on it,
It becomes a taboo growing north,
Treacherous for groping heart & hand to fondle

But nature’s circle is evident
In your hairs’ brown flicker
That champions its unique ray

Water, I sit on my earth,
Watching you melt your lures
In little big shades


Four Pieces of Rainbow

Rainbow is not only for the sky to wear
There are other parts it can appear too
Like the flesh

My sister wears a rainbow
On her ears
That reminds me of my grandmother: heritage

But she is a civilised breed
Whose actions are manuscripts of that doctrine
& not after the letters of history

Tragus, Lobule, Helix:
The three states that turn fertile soils
To plant the ball, ring, arc rainbow

Four pieces, she wears
That takes pain to first dig a tunnel
To install silver and gold into the earth of her flesh

Her skin texture & wall do not collapse
From the piece of rock or iron she is wearing.
It is metallic itself!

But her friend’s skin bleeds
From its originality
Into the same rainbow she has built

Eyes turn into arrows,
Shooting the rainbow sitting on her ears
Only to get loud hush, glitter & enchantment

Her steps begin to wither
But pictures & grandparents
Are cultures that live in time & even echo

Rainbow is not epochal
That causes mass spectation for nature only.
It is the shout of forgotten lifestyle

Biography:

Peter Elias Ashiwhobere is a Nigerian poet and writer. He has performed his poems on several platforms: the Pan African Space Station, Lagos Book and Art Festival and Lagos International Poetry Festival, among others. He is resident in Lagos, Nigeria


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