POETS ARE FAILED MUSICIANS
Prosper Ifeanyi
"Music is the Sister of Poetry
and her Mother is sorrow."
—Sergei Rachmaninoff
and her Mother is sorrow."
—Sergei Rachmaninoff
Give me a harp & a lyre and watch me plough
the bows into a hymnal. My lips ache like battered
cymbals clapped into waiting for the watchword & watchman
at heaven's gate. But this art, like a cavity, plunges me deep
into the sinus of a sea, therein, I chew the groundnut sands
and inhale the scent of the horizon, wanting to stretch my reard
to a fastening velcro but all I croon about is grief. Every Gen-Alpha
centric poet lulls about grief, & I know them well, like the
fingers of my toe. One sings about his mother who meets death
at a tryst once every week. Another, serenades how darkness kissed
the oil in his paraffin lamp. A line has been leaving rent free in the
corners of my heart & each time I try to tame it I need a trombone;
so I just put it down—anyways, & I instead sing a song akin to how
goosebumps count time in an hourglass through body languages.
the bows into a hymnal. My lips ache like battered
cymbals clapped into waiting for the watchword & watchman
at heaven's gate. But this art, like a cavity, plunges me deep
into the sinus of a sea, therein, I chew the groundnut sands
and inhale the scent of the horizon, wanting to stretch my reard
to a fastening velcro but all I croon about is grief. Every Gen-Alpha
centric poet lulls about grief, & I know them well, like the
fingers of my toe. One sings about his mother who meets death
at a tryst once every week. Another, serenades how darkness kissed
the oil in his paraffin lamp. A line has been leaving rent free in the
corners of my heart & each time I try to tame it I need a trombone;
so I just put it down—anyways, & I instead sing a song akin to how
goosebumps count time in an hourglass through body languages.
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BIO:
Prosper Ifeanyi is a student of English and Literary Studies in Delta State University, Abraka. He is the Editor-in-chief of OneBlackBoyLikeThat Review and a reader for Khoreo Magazine. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Identity Theory, Terror House Magazine, Kalahari Review, Afrocritik, Salamander Ink Magazine, Libretto Anthology, Lumiere Review, Broken Poetry, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and elsewhere. Reach him on Twitter and Instagram @prosperifeanyii |
