When A Body Disobeys The Law Of Elasticity
It becomes one that chooses its’ texture.
On some days, it’s cells, and tissues, and organs
Liquefies into a river, to be awash from dolour.
I allow a scapula kiss my breath
& watch as this warehouse of memories
Split into a thousand pieces, unveiling the
Genesis of pain. & strain—this outpouring
Stains my chest. In the beginning, the creator
Gave life to clay. Does it mean that I’d being
Indoctrinated with the gospel of crumbling,
Even before I took my first breath? In this poem,
Everything is synonymous to distortion.
Come, watch how a black boy morphs into a house of cards,
Sufficient with the history of days when the proof of
Existence is just the air in his lungs
& nights when he practiced exorcism on himself.
Look, I understand the theory of disintegration
And how it undresses the pride of a man.
Rendering him asthenic. The rate of decay is
Directly proportional to extinction.
This is a poem in which a body
Disobeys the law of elasticity
Still, it refuses to be the past tense
Told in present, & renames itself an antonym to death.
By Joshua Effiong
Biography
Joshua Effiong [He] is a Nigerian writer and a lover of literature. His works has appeared in Eboquills, Kalahari Review & Shallow Tales Review. He is an author of a poetry chapbook Autopsy of Things Left Unnamed. When he is not writing, he is reading, watching movies and listening to music. An undergraduate of Science Laboratory Technology. He lives in Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria. And here he writes from. You can find him on Instagram @josh.effiong and twitter @JoshEffiong