BEYOND HELP
A plea for her
to come around one minute
becomes a request to be
alone with my thoughts the next,
the sounds that get me
rolling all over the floor
soon become the noises
that I want to shut out of my ears,
the skin that I yearn
to hold throughout the night
ends up being the flesh
I give inches of space on the mat,
and I often find myself
dreaming of ways to understand all this.
If I cannot be helped
if I will never climb out of this
if I’m condemned to flashes
of colourful commercials
amidst a gloomy long-running series
if Joy will mean nothing more
than three distant alphabets to me
then I would love to
find out soon enough
for there is really no point
chasing elusive rainbows
and a hundred forced smiles
do a very poor job
in cancelling out the days’ sour tastes.
Jerry Chiemeke is an editor, culture critic and lawyer. His works have appeared in The Question Marker, Agbowo, The Pangolin Review, Inlandia Journal and elsewhere. Jerry lives a secluded life in Lagos, Nigeria. He is an advocate for mental health awareness.
Facebook : www.facebook.com/I.J.Chiemeke
Twitter : @J_Chiemeke
Instagram : @J_Chiemeke
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