IF ALL THE SCARS IN MY HEART WERE LADIES, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN GROWN ENOUGH TO BE WEARING BRAS – Adamu Yahuza.

IF ALL THE SCARS IN MY HEART WERE LADIES, THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN GROWN ENOUGH TO BE WEARING BRAS

After Zainab Kuyizhi

The walls of my heart has grown into a bonfire

I wear these scars like old habits. once, a girl

searched through my heart & ended up not

finding flowery sinews or veins, but skulls of

my adversaries. & ain’t we all glued to this

madness like icicles during winter?

once, I threw some banquet of roses & it landed on

the same garden where my older brother threw His.

the war of love began & it ended when we became

the ashes to its flames. I, too, attempted to tug

love inside of me like a second skin but failed

& still failed. what does it mean to not see a side

of love in God’s many faces? the

last time I thought of love, I almost became a

catalog of dead things. love disgust me, like

every part of me ain’t dying of loneliness.

during a night class, a girl sang the praises of

my poetry so I can dampen into the flames of her desire,

I managed to feign being a Joseph, but every bit of the smile

I could birth is a thoroughbred of anguish. So, I laughed

along to mourn all the grieves lost in my body but

I kept pouring over & over again. I have held onto

love for so long & it didn’t stop my brother from becoming

the closest thing to a monsoon sky.

I do not wish to tell you this: every wall of my

heart is a war center where ladies display their

Kung Fu skills. & my body is a cinema

where broken hearts recount their  memories

of haunting. listen, if all the scars in my heart

were ladies, they would have been grown enough

to be wearing bras. In this fireplace, I am a

shadow of a boy running into ashes. didn’t we all

learn to fall in love with the glooms of love

& forgot her stillness till we become moments

etched in the torn pages of her diary? God, I don’t

want to love again. free me from this madness.

I, too, want to be a testimony to flirting metaphors.

Contributor’s Bio

Adamu Yahuza Abdullahi, TPC V, THE PLOB, is a finalist of the most peaceful university of Usmanu Danfodiyo, Sokoto. He is an alumni of SprinNg writing fellowship, a Best of the Net Nominee, the first runner up of the first edition of Gimba Sulaiman Hassan poetry contest, winner of the NAKS UDUS chapter harmony writing contest and a shortlistee of many contests, including; Splendors of dawn poetry foundation poetry and short short story contest. His works are published/forthcoming in THE TEMZ REVIEW, Eunoia review, Brittle paper and many other places. Of all things in the world, he values peace of mind. You can reach him on twitter @AdamuYahuzaAbd2 and Instagram @Official_yahuzeey