Flight

This is the ballad of / the cast away. The boy whose miracles / fell in reverse . . .

I live inside a plummet. Ever since I fell

from heaven, I have dwelt in the descent;

limbs in constant flutter for balance, feet

searching for earth, reminiscing the days

the Psalms comforted me—He set my feet

upon a rock. I, feet without rock. I, floating

in the horrible pit. If the butterfly could

speak, it will tell you its nightmare is

bending back to a caterpillar, that thing

empty of grace. This is the ballad of

the cast away. The boy whose miracles

fell in reverse—wine into water, water

becoming thirst. I levitate towards Bethel

& it ends with the imagery of wings returning

into a shoulder. I soar: I Icarus. I supplicate:

I fall back into the mouth of my silence.

I fall like a flower, like rain.

I fall like a bird obeying an arrow.

Samuel A. Adeyemi is a young writer from Nigeria. A Poetry Editor at Afro Literary Magazine, he is the winner of The Yellow House Library Prize for Creativity and Teex Prize for Performance 2021. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Frontier Poetry, 580 Split, The Maine Review, Blue Marble Review, Brittle Paper, Jalada, and elsewhere. When he is not writing, he enjoys watching anime and listening to a variety of music. You may reach him on Twitter and Instagram @samuelpoetry