Poetry: to witness sunset & not say goodbye by Praise Osawaru
In “to witness sunset & not say goodbye,” the speaker searches for something resembling love, only to find “a half-healed wound pealing itself.” Also, through social media interactions or lack-thereof, with a potential suitor, the speaker’s longings only seem to grow and multiply.
to witness sunset & not say goodbye
another night of interring the animal in me when nighttime’s
wind blows & rattles my bones. our ship folded some months ago,
& though I downed loneliness like beer, & time has stretched me
into the field of trimly-rooted rows of hope, substituted the
scorch of loss with lyrics of glee; minutes of longing digs into me,
a half-healed wound peeling itself. what is it about warmth
that plunges one into an ocean of insanity? how I haste to view
your page & bombard your photos with sighs of mild what-ifs
& slip-up likes. I envision you, too, tumble into this yawning hole.
I mean, the occasional deleted sent-messages—I see them & break,
like the day, into a sunlit sky. funny how we persist in returning
to pommel on each other’s door. in a way, we’re lakes with nowhere
to go. does it matter what breaks if it can be replaced?
everyone desires a warmed hand / a haven of chest /
night sky with a choir of glittering rhinestones /
to witness sunset & not say goodbye. forgive me,
this is just another episode of trying to fill a body with love.
Praise Osawaru
Praise Osawaru (he/him) is a writer of Bini descent. A Best of the Net nominee, his work appears or is forthcoming in FIYAH, The Hellebore, Rigorous Magazine, Lit Quarterly, Knights Library Magazine, and Roadrunner Review, among others. He was a finalist for the 2020 Jack Grapes Poetry Prize and the Nigerian Students Poetry Prize 2020, and he's a recipient of the NF2W Poetry Scholarship. He's a reader for both Barren Magazine and Chestnut Review, and he's on Instagram & Twitter: @wordsmithpraise.
