Abdulmueed Balogun Adewale – Seasoned Music

I let myself and my worries drown

In the seasoned music stealthy night offers

Like olive, when crickets strum the strings

Of their ancient heavenly lyre.

I embrace my mistakes light-heartedly,

As a good mother would her only son

After chiding him for failing to yield

Her admonitions.

I don’t want to revisit the gory past

But in truth, I know, that’s not me

Giving wings to words. It’s my ancient

League of fears doing the babbling

Without shame.

I, sometimes, find solace in the abysses

Forged out of the past, when the bridle

Of the mare of my thoughts lies in the

Reach of hopeful fingers.

I take a bow, tonight, before the idols

My fears have evolved into, before

Reaching their muddy necks with

An axe, which is bravery, my new god.

I owe my life to myself as birds owe to

Themselves alone, the memories, language

Of chaos, encountered while in flight

During heavy downpours.

I am, but a servant of God. I am, but a poet,

A believer, seeking the lurking light in every darkness;

I know one’s hope shouldn’t be in excess

Like thunderous rainfall, but everywhere

I’ve turned to, I’ve been repelled by love, glee,

Ardour & even foes. But the road of my longing

has always been calling and my legs keep

hearkening its clarion call.

Abdulmueed Balogun Adewale is a black poet and an undergrad at the University of Ibadan. He's a Pushcart prize and BOTN Nominee. A 2021 HUES Foundation Scholar and a poetry editor at The Global Youth Review. He prays silently in his heart, that his verses outlive him. He was a finalist in the 2021 Wingless Dreamer Book of Black Poetry Contest, Winner 2021 Annual Kreative Diadem Poetry Contest. His poems have been published in: Brittle Paper, Soundings East Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, ROOM, Watershed Review, Decolonial Passage, Poetry Column-NND, The Westchester Review, The Oakland Arts Review, The Night Heron Barks Review, Subnivean Magazine, Short Vine and elsewhere. He tweets from: AbdmueedA

Artwork: Down the River by Giuseppina Brandi

Giuseppina Brandi lives in Naples, Italy. She has a Master's Degree in Comparative Literatures. With a great passion for poetry too, she believes in the power of art and poetry of healing and connect. Autodidact, she has always loved drawing and painting and she takes inspiration from natural world and human emotions. Her artwork has been published in Black Bough Poetry edition Sound and Vision, Acropolis Journal: Issue Seven, Blue Motel Rooms Poetry and Art inspired by Joni Mitchell, The Poetica Sisterhood of Sylvia & Anne, Cover art of the Spellbinder literary Magazine Autumn issue 2023.