Of Gratitude


I begin this song with a thank you

To the one who kept his breathe trapped

Inside my chest. To the one who

Refrained from seizing inhaling & exhaling

From this mouth.

There are debts I owe

& Cannot pay. Say, the debt of love/

Of his affection/of laughters.

There are things I am guilty of

Of ingratitude & forgetting.

Like how I forget He kept & is still

Keeping me from the touch of hades & mourning.

I recall a man

Who conveyed his wife's body

In his two-week old car.

And I witnessed how joy morphs into sorrow.

Sadness blends well into a room full of happiness.

In the scheme of things, Lord, teach me how not to forget

Of your hand in my waking

& Your Light & voice in things 

I hold to my  chest. 





Bio:

Ayiyi Joel is young budding poet from Edo state in Nigeria where lives and writes from. He has works published/forthcoming on The Beatnik cowboy, Synchronized chaos, Rough Cut Press, Eboquils, Paper Crane and elsewhere.