Ojo Taiye
i look into your eyes each morning
and find
me—sifting
through all the syllables
of love
brimming with words i can say
and cannot spell
half-illiterate in my mother
tongue half-silent
in my purchased f———luency
at the age of five
i watched my mother fold her breath
into birds until they found
home
in a stranger’s
arms
and yes
what of all the green blessings
in my mouth—the shadows
that keep me company
when my lover’s face is a city
drowning in epitaphs
i open myself to a new kind of love—
a beautiful prison where no one is running
where no one is burning where no one is hiding