On the day and time
Of the passing of man Pots and kettles Will reconcile Each will welcome The other’s black From the same gourd They’ll drink wine And from the same bowl They’ll eat yams Feeding each other gently In soft stewed mounds * Hens will borrow the moon’s abacus And take it to the coop But just because They borrow its abacus Doesn’t mean They’ll sing of the moon They’ll pull the beads And sing instead Of raised and feathered necks Breeze beneath the cypress And of love between gators Octopi and ferrets – Those gained and others Unrequited * Goats will get drunk On beer carefully brewed To turn cheeks red Or gently rouge And warm from days Of song and drink Mugs raised To nanny-goats In blouse And skirts trimmed They’ll raise their legs In beat and rhyme To tunes that echoed From old men’s hearts On the day and time Of the passing of man ______________ Abayomi Animashaun is an immigrant from Nigeria. He holds an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a PhD from the University of Kansas. His poems have appeared in several print and online journals, including Diode, TriQuarterly, The Cortland Review, African American Review, Southern Indiana Review, The Adirondack Review, Passages North, and Versedaily. A recipient of the Hudson Prize and a grant from the International Center for Writing and Translation, Abayo is the author of three poetry collections, Seahorses (Black Lawrence, 2020), Sailing for Ithaca, and The Giving of Pears, and the editor of three anthologies, Far Villages: Welcome Essays for New & Beginner Poets (Black Lawrence, 2020), Others Will Enter the Gates: Immigrant Poets on Poetry, Influences, and Writing in America, and Walking the Tightrope: Poetry and Prose by LGBTQ Writers from Africa (with Spectra, Tatenda Muranda, Irwin Iradunkunda, and Timothy Kimutai). Abayo teaches writing and literature at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and lives with his wife and two children in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |