Poetry by Michael Akuchie
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Memory Poem
“I still follow the child who still walks inside me” — Adonis The language of my childhood is a kite that surfs the murmurs of wind. I trail the laughter & anguish of friends long inside the hollow of memories. Remembrance is a sprout of friends in the garden of mind. I have a heart for every harvest eaten with the seed of their name. With friends, we would ship out to watch the sun recede into the jaws of night. Every get-together was a gesture to grow a joke & feed it laughter. Now memory grants me a viewing pleasure of faces with whom I attempted to number the stars, vodka bottles in loose grips, the company exotic. We imagined each star a door to a different angel. We fitted silent requests with wings & believed they flew. The boat of memory traverses the ocean of my life. My childhood is untouchable & thinks so of its districts. |
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Singing the Tune of Hearts
“at the end of the world, let there be you, my world” — Danez Smith We begin our song & wear our throats in the manner we’d want to be heard. There I am, inches from the low heat of your breath. Passion is the thump of my heart, a flock of lust sits there. I draw close to get inhaled, all of me pulled in. The blink of your eyes reveals an audience of stars, a city of glitters that focuses to read my thoughts. Your hands enclose the whole of my back, gentleness is their grandeur & I beg with a moan to be absorbed. I prepare for the placement of prints across my skin. Your nails bear a hunger, & with it, they advance. You breathe out a tune & my voice turns to shine towards it. |
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Michael Akuchie is a poet of Igbo-Esan descent. His chapbook manuscript, Wreck (Winter, 2020), was selected by José Olivarez to win The 2019-2020 Hellebore Poetry Scholarship Award. He is a recipient of the 2020 Roadrunner Review Poetry Prize, an Orison Anthology nominee and a Best of The Net Nominee. He tweets @Michael_Akuchie and reads submissions for FRONTIER Poetry.
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