A Song To My Lover

 by

Chukwuemeka Chimeremeze

Because we run this country with our corpses

we know that tomorrow is always a hypothesis

when I try to hold your hand, I can only touch static

but we are used to this: a semi-sacrament

our love language is dis(re)membering

the violence this border does to our bodies.

Because we are from this place that takes

everything from us, even our sorrow,

Forgive me if I do not know how to love with restraint,

Forgive me if I am holding you too tight,

Forgive me, because I cannot promise you tomorrow.

Memories are a function of space and time, they will not do

I will hold you like this place does not exist

I will make you a home between these screaming bullets,

We will recede into that space the clock's hands forgot to sweep

Like a farewell suspended between the two rays of sunlight.

A Song To My Lover

©2020 Chukwuemeka Chimeremeze. All Rights Reserved.