Taofeek Ayeyemi

Epiphany

a city dips its root in the belly of the universe. like a spider, it traverses landscapes with its web. its confluence leads to many roads: one to the palace, one to the market, one to the farm, one to the shrine, one to the forbidden forest, one to a field of pomegranate, some to nowhere, one back to wherever you are coming from, and the last leads to a meadow where the smell of lavender, chamomile, and yarrow lingers.

at the peak of noon, i gather a handful of the city’s sand. its sun burns my palm. a sudden wind scatters it into disappearance. butterflies appear, each perching on flowers of their own colour: papilio ulysses on pansy, monarch butterfly on black dahlia, swallowtail on peony, clouded yellow on daffodil, blue morpho on hydrangea—all leaving a taste of rain in my mouth.

wind whistle...
a bevy of crows
adds their note

---

About the Author

Taofeek Ayeyemi, aka Aswagaawy, is a Nigerian lawyer, writer and author of a haiku chapbook, Across the Full Moon (Mamba Africa Press), and a haibun chapbook, Dust and Rust (Buttonhook Press). A BotN and Pushcart Prize nominee, he has published work in Akitsu Quarterly, Cattails, Frogpond, and elsewhere. His haibun “Banga” won the 2021 Loft Books International Flash Fiction Contest.

---