(For my beloved)
I may not have the word
to build a beautiful world
but I have a robust expression
beyond a cracking repression
I may not have the wealth
to create an haling health
but I have a gentle heart
that understands love as art
I may not be the best of all vals
but I make no single story of all gals
You shot me
in the centre of my heart
now the cupid finds solace
in its hollow place
It sticks to it
like a durable glue
Now my heart bears
your recurring physiognomy
I read every part of you
in the map of my dreams
every part is a subject
of my fantastic reveries
Now I see you newly
in my fecund imagination
I see the radiant smile
that fits your moderate lips
like a round glowing silver moon
in a cloudless plain sky
I see you newly
in this waking dawn
I see your heart
as a alloy of my heart
same happiness gives it power
same feelings write the book
of our joint minds
I see you newly
in this weather shift
as day takes off its yester skin
to wear the garment
of a young new day
I see you differently today
not with borrowed eyes
but with these same eyes
that see beyond the stereotypes
of the same static object
I see in you
a simplicity of splendid aesthetics
not a complexity of arid specifics
Basit Olatunji
