I painted the color of the titanic on my heart. I looked through the doorsill of memory—the mouth of a shark, every bite, they say, the bleeding comes through the eyes. I picked my uncleʼs dying pupils through a fractal on a colorless marble. I could see him dying for the second time. I could see his body bending into the wind without light disrupting its flight. The ripples asked out by every stone I tossed into the water carried a wavelength dilating an auditorium where memory occupies—on its walls, a frame carried a shipwreck that happened inside a year my father had no chance of swimming out of. Dad, I am still a child learning how to crawl from his playground into playing with his psyche. I am an abecedarian learning how to collect the alphabets on grief into a basket knitted by the hands of memory. I kept on looking at the river holding the smiles of the fishes inside its belly—the sky geniculates, birthing winding tides. I understood how one chooses to be unhappy by allowing inertia to swallow him up. Dawn came with the edges of canoes coming to grace the bank—the stars were pulped into forming your ghost, dad. You asked, how can one swallow inertia? By learning the languages of love & of stones, I guess—by crawling from a leaf of memory, from a petal of longing, by dragging oneʼs body to the river, not to its cathedral of bones.
Israel Okonji (He / Him) is a Southern Nigerian artist of poetry, storytelling & music. He is published/forthcoming @ Brittle Paper, Bruiser Magazine, Midsummer Magazine, Wasteland Review, Juste Lit, The Milton Review, Hiraeth Zine, SprinNG, Garlic Press Lit, Poetry-as-promised Lit, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Moonlighting by Lit Pub, & Querencia Pressʼ Winter 2024 anthology. He listens to music ranging from Marvin Gaye to Elton John, Nas to Kendrick Lamar, Ne-Yo to Chris Brown, Rihanna to Adele, Brymo to Made Kuti. He hopes to fulfill his dream of collecting records like Craig Kallman. Also, he hopes to own a bungalow housing cats and willow ptarmigans. He has a special place for Brit actress Emma Watson in his heart. He tweets @izrltrcz.