Taofeek Ayeyemi (Aswagaawy)

The Venom & the Serum

I'm a mirror owned by many ladies. But to persuade a heart is not easy. And how do you know you're mining the right field. Like frogs, how do you know the pregnant one. This confusion is an arrow shot from past memory – one that never stops giving me a nightmare. And past tense means we can bring the past into the present while present continuous is a stream flowing into the future. But the only way I wish to invite the past is by way of tales. A moonlit fairytale that's more of myth than reality and renders it a plate no one uses. Like a zoo guest taking food to his host, I pay tribute to the person I was, some years back. Truly, I still burn anytime I remember. Heartbreak is a venom. But instead of becoming poisonous, I'll make a serum for anyone who comes my way.

hot night . . .
scratching my rashes
till they bleed