BECAUSE I CAN II

I snore when I sleep, I breathe nails.
~’Demola Ilesanmi

I see screams I hear sun
I walk on waters and swim in land.
~Rasheeda Salami

BECAUSE I CAN

Last night
I wrote with my blood and
Powered my life with ink
I swam into the night sky and
Sweat fire therein, I saw a jinn
And was happy, I grinded my teeth
For music
Through my window
I saw my shadow across the street
Shaking hands with a stranger, soon
I ate whirlwind and drank hemlock
In my drunkenness I slept with clouds
And made thunders and rainbows
I made spears out of rainfingers
And shot dragons and dinosaurs dead
On the whiteness of my room walls
I splattered their blood and flesh,
My voice said goodnight and left, so I
Danced to the smell of my eyes in the mirror
I heard the moon shine in my ceiling as I
Close my ears to the cold outside
I slept to the noise of my mindbeat.
In my dream I had a dream; I'd tell another day
I woke to the footsteps of ants
In the fissure of my room walls,
I swallowed an elephant for breakfast
And made a song for the silent birds
That sits in the trees in my backyard
I took my bath with the ink left, and
Left my house through doors unseen
The streets strolled trough my mind
While the houses looked on in dismay
I frowned back, because I can
I did all.

~Diipo Fagbolu