Ewa Gerald Onyebuchi
The dialogue

so you love me
would you still love me if I showed
you the stars on my body
searching for a night to call home?

all birds have wings but some have broken wings.
like me

you call the smile on my face the sun that
uncreases the darkness from every alley,
a fresh skin for every wilted plant
this is not a sad poem

but have you been to the room in my eyes,
where a bevy of voices cringe by the windowside
waiting for the sky to make it an ocean of flowers.

you say you are not like them-wolves, tricky and possessive.
poaching the moon of my innocence.
look at the garden of my heart

do you see anthers flirting with the wind?
no brushstrokes of heaven sprouting thorns in summer.
i meant to say I hate summer-the heat dressing your skin

into suya. i mean I have chopped the climbers, their long necks
of deceit & laid the web of memories to rest.
just like their poisons.

just like yesterday.  the tulips are in their right places now.
here the night is a cooing baby in his crib: mesmerising and dreamy,

like the voices of lovers & birdsongs spewed like confetti
from the wind's mouth. like your words
a river of polished metaphors clinging to my stubborn heart

give me your heart, you say holding my hands, we will build a pinnacle
for our love to grow wings and soar beyond the sky

oh lover, how I desire to repaint this heart with your smile
to clench this  rope of faith hanging from your eyes
but the fingers of my heart have learnt a new game
of building walls. call it a bird released from it's cage

say this heart is no longer an absorbent for hurt.
i don't turn to look at you as I stand to leave. i don't see the
shape of your face forming into a broken mirror behind me;
the butterflies flutter in my chest-i don't know what they mean but I listen.